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1. On a scale of 1 to 6 – with 1 being strongly support, 5 being strongly against and 6 being I don’t know – how strongly do you support the proposed design of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve?
2. Please provide any comments explaining your response to the first question.
While we strongly support protecting as much of Antarctica as possible, the current proposal has poorly designed boundaries and must be revised
3. Please provide any comments relating to the proposed boundaries, zoning and assigned IUCN categories for the proposed Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve.
Almost all the proposed protected areas are deep water and have low conservation value.
The areas with high conservation value have been left out, likely to appease the Australian longline companies that fish for Patagonian Toothfish at Heard and McDonald Islands.
Huge swathes of low conservation deep-water
areas are protected but do little to protect biodiversity simply because it isn’t as present in deep water. In an effort to appease industrial fisheries, there is extremely poor
representation of the depth ranges and benthic features between around 750m to 2,500m which are the depths where Patagonian Toothfish are generally caught. This must be addressed and changed.
As a community group strongly concerned with our environment, we would strongly support a marine reserve expansion that fully protects key conservation features including the Williams Ridge complex, southern canyons, Gunnari Ridge and western plateau.
4. Please provide any comments relating to natural values and/or pressures within the proposed Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve.
Antarctica and the Subantarctic are some of the world’s greatest wild areas and should be protected completely. There should be no fishing allowed around the World Heritage Heard and McDonald Islands. These are the areas that harbour
critical biodiversity that the current design has completely overlooked. As a world heritage area, the concept that industrial long liners can set kilometres of longlines with thousands of hooks in this area is outdated. It becomes even more outdated when the fishery targets a deep-water fish, on which scientific data is lacking, and is then sold as a luxury item. This doesn’t and should not fulfil any criteria of sustainability or good practice.
Australia can take the lead globally on Antarctic and
Subantarctic conservation and ensure that the natural values are protected and not sacrificed at the behest of the fishing industry.
5. Please provide any other comments.
It is our strong recommendation that the marine reserve expansion proposal must be changed to include full protection for key conservation features including the Williams Ridge complex, southern canyons, Gunnari Ridge and western plateau, with industrial fishing fully excluded from the marine reserve and these key conservation areas.
1. Please provide any comments relating to the management, protection and conservation of the Reserve.
The Australian government must provide strong support and budget to ensure, once the key conservation areas have been protected and fishing is excluded, that no illegal fishing
takes place in the marine reserve.
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