Parks Australia : Managing Australia’s Coral Sea Marine Park

Marine parks are recognised around the world as one of the most effective ways of protecting our marine environment. The Australian Government is committed to a National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas.

Australia has the second largest area of marine parks in the world, after the United States. This includes the Coral Sea Marine Park. We’re taking a balanced approach to managing our marine parks, one that protects the environment while supporting people’s livelihoods. To help us manage the Coral Sea Marine Park over the next 10 years, we’re preparing a plan that will set out the zones and rules for activities within the park.

At the same time, we’re also preparing plans for our other marine parks in Australian waters.

In developing these plans, we are will carefully considering our international obligations for maritime safety and conservation throughout this process.

We are also asking for ideas from the public. In 2016, when we let people know that we are preparing management plans for our marine parks, we received a total of 54,322 submissions.

Of these, 104 individual submissions and thousands of campaign submissions commented specifically on the Coral Sea Marine Park.

These submissions included requests for increased protection of reefs, increased access to the Coral Sea for commercial and recreational fishing, and highlighted the importance of tourism in marine parks as a major contributor to employment in regional economies.

On 21 July 2017, a draft management plan for the Coral Sea Marine Park was released by the Director of National Parks for public consultation. Until this plan is finalised there will be no change to the existing arrangements in the Coral Sea Marine Park.

Information about Australian Marine Parks and their management arrangements can be found on Parks Australia’s website at www.parksaustralia.gov.au/marine