South-east Marine Parks Network Draft Management Plan

14 November 2024
Suite 2-05,
60 Leicester Street,
Carlton VIC 3053
To:
1300 730 075
Director of National Parks birdlife.org.au
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

South-east Marine Parks Network Draft Management Plan

BirdLife Australia welcomes the opportunity to make a submission on the South-east Commonwealth
Marine Parks Network Draft Management Plan. Protection of the marine environment is crucial to the protection and restoration of sea bird species and populations.

BirdLife Australia is an independent, non-partisan science-based bird conservation charity with over
330,000 supporters. Our mission is to put birds and nature on a path to recovery by informing and leading action to halt biodiversity loss and restore ecosystems. Our organisation is the national partner of BirdLife International, the world’s largest conservation partnership.

As well as providing comments (see below) we would like to refer you to the submission by BirdLife
Special Interest Group, the Australasian Seabird Group, and the submission by the Australian Marine
Conservation Society (AMCS), both of which also include important recommendations that we support.

Erin Farley
Senior Manager Advocacy

Comments and recommendations

Improved protections welcome

The Draft Management Plan will deliver several conservation improvements, which BirdLife Australia welcomes. The expansion of Marine Sanctuary Areas improves protection of the biologically productive continental slope and upper shelf, on which many seabirds rely as foraging grounds.

We strongly welcome new marine sanctuary protection in the Franklin Marine Park, which is an important foraging area for the Shy Albatross. The marine shelf and upper slope around Albatross Island and including this marine park is currently being nominated as a globally significant Key Biodiversity
Area (KBA) supporting around 30% of the global population of Shy Albatross during the breeding season. The new marine sanctuary zone also covers a Biologically Important Area for foraging of breeding Australasian Gannets on Black Pyramid Rock.

Protection remains insufficient and downgrades will impact threatened species

The proposed Management Plan still protects only 1% of shelf habitat. As identified by the AMCS, protection of the highest conservation value shelf habitats remains particularly low (less than 1%) and 7 of the 12 shelf bioregions remain without any protection within marine sanctuaries. Upper slope habitats, including those within the high conservation value West Tasmanian Transition province, lack coverage.
We strongly oppose the proposal to downgrade Flinders Marine Park and are particularly concerned regarding the proposal to reduce conservation measures in Murray Marine Park. Murray MP lies on the western margin of the Bonney Upwelling which is the largest and most predictable upwelling in south- eastern Australia, and which provides a highly productive feeding ground for a variety of species. It is also a core foraging area for juvenile Shy Albatross at a vulnerable life stage.

Priorities for improved protection

BirdLife Australia is concerned that biologically important areas and key ecological features within the region have insufficient protection that will lead to negative impacts for seabirds.

Key ecological features of the South-east marine region should have at least some representation within marine sanctuaries, especially upwelling features that are known to support regional diversity and predators including seabirds. We recommend the establishment of a marine sanctuary for the
Upwelling East of Eden, and greater protection for the Bonney Upwelling.

These upwelling areas are important foraging areas for migratory seabirds including Wandering
Albatross (Diomedea exulans, Vulnerable), Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris, Least
Concern), Buller’s Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri, Near Threatened), Antipodean Albatross (Diomedea antipodensis, Endangered) Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, (Thalassarche chlororhynchos, Endangered),
Campbell Albatross (Thalassarche impavida, Vulnerable) (Reid et al. 2002, Commonwealth of Australia,
2015).

BirdLife advocates for the establishment of additional marine sanctuaries in the following Marine Parks:

• East Gippsland Marine Park: Located within the East of Eden upwelling, this area is currently
the only location where the first ever South-east marine region marine sanctuaries could be
established for the biologically important feeding grounds for White-faced storm-petrels
breeding on Tullaberga Island near Gabo island.
• Beagle Marine Park: The islands surrounding WIlsons Promontory support significant
populations of Short-tailed Shearwater and Little Penguin breeding colonies.
• Boags Marine Park: establishing a new marine sanctuary within the Boags Marine Park for the
South-east marine regions shallowest depth habitats is particularly important for Shy Albatross.
• Zeehan Marine Park: Active oil and gas leases prevent the establishment of new marine
sanctuaries over the shelf and upper slope habitats of the Zeehan Marine Park. The shelf and
upper slope have been identified as core foraging habitats for Shy Albatross and will be included
in the newly proposed KBA. Protection of this species could be improved by extending the
proposed Special Purpose Zone eastwards to replace the proposed Multiple Use Zone in the
eastern section of the marine park.
Figure 1. Proposed Key Biodiversity Area for Shy Albatross.

References

Berlincourt, M., & Arnould, J. P. (2015). Breeding short-tailed shearwaters buffer local environmental variability in south-eastern Australia by foraging in Antarctic waters. Movement ecology, 3(1), 16.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-015-0044-7

Mason, C., Alderman, R., McGowan, J., Possingham, H. P., Hobday, A. J., Sumner, M., & Shaw, J. (2018).
Telemetry reveals existing marine protected areas are worse than random for protecting the foraging habitat of threatened shy albatross (Thalassarche cauta). Diversity and Distributions, 24(12), 1744-
1755.

Reid, T.A., Hindell, M. A., Eades, D.W., Newman, M. (2002). Seabird Atlas of South-eastern Australian
Waters, Birds Australia Monograph 4. Birds Australia,

Rodríguez-Malagón, M. A., Camprasse, E. C. M., Angel, L. P., & Arnould, J. P. Y. (2020). Geographical, temporal and individual factors influencing foraging behaviour and consistency in Australasian gannets. Royal Society open science, 7(5), 181423. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181423