Marine Environment Policy

Principles

1. The recognition of Native Title over water, rock, headlands and islands;
2. The recognition and involvement of indigenous Australians in marine resource protection and management;
3. The creation of a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system for Marine Protected Areas;
4. The collection of scientific data on the benefits of Marine Protected Areas;
5. Public participation in the design and implementation of management plans for Marine Parks;
6. Recognition of the social impacts (costs and benefits) of Marine Protected Areas;
7. A global ban commercial and so-called scientific harvesting or other killing of all whales and cetaceans;
8. Protection of the habitats of all marine animals; and
9. The recognition that whales and dolphins should not be considered as a resource to be conserved and harvested but as intelligent and unique creatures that should be respected and protected.
   
   

   Detail

   The Greens NSW will work towards:
10. Recognising the rights of indigenous Australians as traditional custodians and protectors of marine resources, and increasing their involvement in Marine Parks planning and management;
11. Recognising the rights of local communities and community based groups to participate in Marine Parks planning and management;
12. Identifying the marine resources of NSW, in terms of ecosystems, habitat types, and species;
13. Protecting ecologically significant areas of the NSW Marine environment in a system of comprehensive, representative  and adequate Marine Protected Areas;
14. Ensuring that each Marine Protected Area contains an adequate number of effective and connected sanctuaries as large as is necessary to protect the representative ecosystem;
15. Banning fishing or spear fishing competitions in Marine Protected Areas;
16. Restricting moorings in Marine Protected Areas to approved, permanent moorings;
17. Ensuring that no further loss of aquatic habitat, especially mangrove, saltmarsh and seagrass occurs;
18. Ensuring no further loss of marine habitats, such as rocky reef, deep ocean reef, and  island reef through fishing practices such as trawling;
19. Identifying and addressing sources of marine and estuarine pollution, such as acid sulphate soils, contaminants, ocean outfalls, marine debris, litter from stormwater runoff, nutrients, pesticides, heavy metals and fertilizers, dog faeces, exfiltration of sewage contaminants from damaged sewage piping and any other pollutants that contribute to the degradation and loss of function of any marine or coastal ecosystem;
20. Mandating the management of ballast and bilge waters to remove the likelihood of introducing noxious marine species into NSW Marine waters;
21. Minimising social dislocation from the creation of marine protected areas, by working with commercial fishers to establish a system of adequate compensation and/or alternative employment should the creation of a marine park result in loss of earnings;
22. Ensuring a total of at least  30% of each representative marine ecosystem being protected in fully protected (no-take) sanctuary zones to ensure that a Comprehensive Adequate and Representative (CAR) regime can be effective across the state;
23. Ensuring Intertidal Protection Zones along at least  30% of the coastline to ensure that intertidal species are also protected within the CAR regime;
24. Establishing a framework for Ecosystem Management incorporating sustainable fishery assessment and management plans for recreational and commercial fishing;
25. Improving land management to reduce impacts on estuarine and marine ecosystems;
26. Restricting moorings over seagrass beds, particularly Posidonia spp, to approved permanent moorings;
27. Ensuring that land based aquaculture development does not occur below 1m of the Australian Height Datum (AHD);
28. Ensuring that ocean based aquaculture is Ecologically Sustainable and the species of fish culture are within their natural distribution ranges;
29. Ensuring that all species of “fish’ (as defined in the Fisheries Management Act 1994) are locally native to the area in any aquaculture development;
30. Ensuring aquaculture ventures being approved only if they can demonstrate a better ecological outcome than from projected ecologically sustainable practices in the wild fishery for that species;
31. Restricting and eventually eliminating 4WD vehicles on beaches and coastal dunes;
32. Further investigation and research into alternatives for protecting beach users from the risk of shark attack to allow fora decrease in size, scope and extent of shark meshing operations , moving to abandonment;
33. Ensuring  all marine threatened species under recovery plans and threat abatement plans immediately, with priority given to those that are listed “critically endangered” under State Legislation or under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;
34. Ensuring implementation of by-catch avoidance techniques of fishing, as well as require the mandatory reporting on the extent and make up of by-catch by commercial fishers;
35. A comprehensive international ban on commercial whaling, the abolition of so-called ‘scientific’ whaling and an international ban on the sale of whale meat and by-products;
36. A ban on the use of seismic and other explosive devices, sonar equipment and disruptive mining activities in locations where, and at all times when, they could cause harm to whale populations;
37. Restricting the testing of military and naval explosive devices in the migratory paths of whales to times when whales are known to be present;
38. Maintaining the minimum approach to whales and dolphins; and
39. A ban on the keeping of whales and dolphins in captivity.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Marine Environment Policy Summary.