But, you must believe Mr Burke when he says this...
http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/exclusive-burke-unveils-his-vision-for-fishingAlthough his masters say this.....
http://greens.org.au/policies/environment/marine-and-coastal-areasFish Facts April 2012 – Australia to have 70% of the worlds Marine Parks
For the purposes of the planning process, Australia’s marine waters have been divided into 6 bioregions, namely the South East, South West, North West, North, Coral Sea and Temperate east regions. Before the 2007 election, the bioregional planning process had just finished with rezoning of the South East region, which resulted in establishment of one of the worlds largest marine parks (338,000 square km) in the waters surrounding Tasmania, Victoria , Southern NSW and the Antarctic territories
The summary statistics are contained in Table 1, where it is evident that a 700% increase in marine parks area has been planned, taking up nearly 2.4 million square km or 34% of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Of this area, up to 53% of the various bioregions is being proposed to be closed to all fishing (overall average 41.69%), which equates to a staggering 16% of the entire EEZ. This means that the Australian Government plans to exceed the international marine park targets by around 339%, around 8 years ahead of schedule.
Now ignoring the new parks in state waters for a moment, the planned additional 2,398,216 km2 of marine parks in Federal waters during the bioregional planning process are greater in area than the entire worlds MPA area as of 2010.
And if the government runs to plan, by the end of 2012, we will have 840,000 + 2,396,216 = approx 3,236,216 km2 of MPAs in Australia (both state and federal marine parks). Assuming that no other big parks are declared around the world this year (there is 8 years to go to meet the international deadline, so whats the rush ?), the world total will be
2,200,000 km2 + 2,396,216 km2 (the new parks from Australia) = 4,596,216 km2
SO, by end of 2012, it is entirely possible then that if other countries delay implementation of new parks until closer to 2020, Australia will have (3,236,216/4,596,216)*100 = 70.4% of the entire worlds marine park area........
I think the figures speak for themselves.
The above information provided by Sunfish. Qld.
Rod
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