Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 29 May to 10 July 2020. Below is a record of the engagement.

We are seeking your feedback on proposed changes to South Australia’s marine parks.

What’s being decided?

The South Australian Government is proposing the following changes to South Australia’s marine parks:

• Extensions to the outer boundaries of the Upper Gulf St Vincent Marine Park and Encounter Marine Park
• Amendments to the following marine park management plans:
  • Upper Gulf St Vincent Marine Park
  • Encounter Marine Park, including the new Port Stanvac Sanctuary Zone and the Metro Reef Sanctuary Zone off Glenelg
  • Nuyts Archipelago Marine Park
  • Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park
  • Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park
  • Upper South East Marine Park

The proposed changes are expected to:

• benefit the economies of regional communities through relaxing restrictions on commercial and recreational fishing
• improve efficiency and flexibility for commercial fishing, particularly for the rock lobster and abalone industries which have been badly impacted by COVID-19
• improve opportunities for recreational fishers
• result in an overall increase in area protected by Sanctuary Zones

Get involved

To help inform your feedback, view the changes proposed to each marine park management plan in the summary of changes tab.

You can also look at the maps, draft management plan amendments and the impact statement report, available on the Marine Parks website.

To have your say:

• join the online discussion
• complete the online survey
• email your feedback to marineparks@sa.gov.au
• post your written feedback to:

SA Marine Parks Review
Department for Environment and Water
GPO Box 1047
Adelaide SA 5001

Please note: Your submissions and survey responses will be made publicly available in full on the Department for Environment and Water’s website unless you indicate on the submission or survey that you wish for these to remain confidential. Please also note that any responses that are made on a confidential basis may still be subject to access under Freedom of Information laws.

How can your input influence the decision?

Your input will help in finalising changes to South Australia’s marine parks later this year.

What are the next steps?

Once public consultation has closed, comments will be collated and a consultation report will be made publically available. The Minister for Environment and Water will consider all feedback before finalising the amendments to the management plans.

The approved changes, once authorised by the Governor, will be laid before Parliament for 14 sitting days.

Contact details

For further information:

E: marineparks@sa.gov.au

Closing date: 5pm, Friday 10 July 2020

Background

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 29 May to 10 July 2020. Below is a record of the engagement.

We are committed to maintaining South Australia’s network of marine parks and revising the current sanctuary (no take) zone boundaries.

An independent review of marine park Sanctuary Zones (SZs) was carried out by BDO EconSearch in 2018, taking economic, social and environmental values held by regional communities and the commercial and recreational fishing sectors into consideration.

The review demonstrated that while the 2013 marine parks buyback program had removed displaced fishing effort at a fisheries level, there were still some important fishing areas lost to commercial fishers and concern from the industry that some SZs are having an impact on their operations.

Following consultation between the commercial fishing, recreational fishing and conservation sectors during 2019; the government has nominated six marine park SZs for which amendments are proposed. In addition, the government proposes to expand the outer boundaries of two marine parks to facilitate the management of three new areas.

The legislated review of all 19 marine park management plans is scheduled for 2022.

Read more about the amendments to the marine parks and get involved.

New protections to enhance our marine life

The area adjacent to the old Port Stanvac oil refinery has been a marine exclusion zone for more than 50 years, meaning the nearshore environment has retained a higher biodiversity than other nearby reefs in the metropolitan area. Amendments are proposed to create a new sanctuary zone at Port Stanvac to ensure that this area remains protected into the future.

Shellfish reefs, dominated by the native flat oyster Ostrea angasi, were once a key ecological feature of the South Australian coastline, but became ‘functionally extinct’ from overfishing in the past. Research has highlighted the importance of shellfish reef habitats to the quality of the marine environment, fish breeding, and water quality as well as delivering recreational and economic opportunities.

Recently a shellfish reef, Windara, was established off Ardrossan in the Gulf St Vincent. The South Australian government will soon commence construction of a new shellfish in Adelaide’s metropolitan waters off Glenelg.

Providing marine park protections for the Windara shellfish reef and the new metropolitan shellfish reef will ensure that these areas can be appropriately protected while they become established, with accessibility managed into the future.