The WA Government’s announcement on Saturday, increasing protection
for Ningaloo Reef, has received the thumbs up from the Australian
Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). ‘This decision will put Ningaloo
up there with the Great Barrier Reef as one of the best managed coral
reef ecosystems in the world’ said AIMS’ Dr Terry Done. ‘Both places
will have increased the area of no-take sanctuary zones to around 30%
to conserve coral reef biodiversity. It is fitting that Ningaloo be
afforded a high level of protection. It is a very significant reef
system in the global context’.
‘Overall, the numbers, position and areas of sanctuary zones seem
about right’, Done said. ‘They provide increased opportunities for
visitors to see the big fish that you just don’t see so often on
unprotected reefs these days. Current scientific understanding
suggests that maintaining the abundance of predatory and herbivorous
fish has flow on effects to other plants and animals on the reef and
is a good strategy for keeping reefs in a healthy state. It’s
important that plenty of places are protected from fishing for the
sake of long-term health and resilience of the ecosystem. I think the
reduction of access to fishing from around 90% to 66% of the Marine
Park is not an unreasonable imposition in return for the threefold
increase in area of protected habitat it will provide.’
Dr Andrew Heyward, who heads up AIMS’ Fremantle lab agrees. ‘With
these new management and research initiatives, AIMS is very optimistic
that we will get a better understanding of how the system works and
provide an independent source of data to assess the management plan’s
performance.’
AIMS is currently developing research proposals for the WA
Government’s Ningaloo Research Program, in collaboration with CSIRO,
CALM, WA Fisheries and the Universities. The studies will include
monitoring the effects of the sanctuaries on biodiversity and
resilience in the coral reef communities, measuring and modelling the
currents, tracking whale sharks, and understanding seasonal
variability in the zooplankton that they eat.
