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« on: November 08, 2010, 04:27:27 AM » |
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On Tuesday 16th November 2010, the next meeting of the Marine Park Advisory Board for Marine Parks 3 (Chain of Bays) and 4 (Investigator Group) will be held at Port Kenny Golf Club. At this meeting, the State Government will produce zoning scenarios which will include the location of Sanctuary Zones within the Parks. These scenarios will form the basis for a further round of community consultation over the next six months. There will be a link on this website for people to be able to view these scenarios and participate in the public consultation process.
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SEARCY
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« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2010, 12:45:17 AM » |
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Draft sanctuary zones for Marine Park 3 (West Coast Bays) and Marine Park 4 (Investigator Group) were presented at the latest meeting of the Marine Park Advisory Board at Port Kenny Golf Club on Tuesday 16th November. These draft zones form a starting point for discussion about where the sanctuary zones should be placed. There will now be a period of several months during which Board Members will consult with their networks to suggest possible changes or to support the draft locations. Following this stage, public input will be sought on the amended draft sanctuary zones. Next meeting will be between late January and early February 2011.
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SEARCY
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« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2011, 04:09:18 AM » |
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This meeting will take the form of a workshop and Group members will consider community feedback on the preliminary sanctuary zone scenarios and work together to develop a preferred zoning scenario for marine parks 3 and 4. This may look quite different to the preliminary scenario starting point.
It is hoped that at the conclusion of the February meetings, Groups will be able to submit their preferred zoning scenarios to Government and to peak stakeholders for comment.
The MPLAG meeting in April will then allow Group members to consider the feedback from Government and peak stakeholders and to develop any final zoning advice before the Government prepares the draft management plans with zoning for public consultation later in 2011.
If anyone has any questions about the marine park process please post them on this forum and we will do our best to answer them.
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SEARCY
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« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2011, 06:06:09 AM » |
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The 4th Meeting of the Marine Park Local Advisory Group for Marine Parks 3 (West Coast Bays) & 4 (Investigator Group) was held at Port Kenny Golf Club last Tuesday and went for about 5 hours.
The meeting was held to a packed gallery, with many professional and recreational fishers present. The meeting began with presentations of community input into the sanctuary zones for the two parks and proceeded with detailed discussions about each proposed sanctuary zone. A number of different scenarios were presented and discussed. Fishing representatives expressed concern about displaced fishing compensation and their sanctuary zone proposals would result in significantly smaller sanctuary zones and even the elimination of some sanctuary zones that were presented in the "pre-draft" scenario by DENR at the beginning of Meeting 3. Conservation representative David Letch from Friends of Sceale Bay offered substantial concessions to the fishers in many of their proposals, but vigorously defended a large sanctuary zone proposal for Nicholas Baudin Island, Cape Blanche and the northern section of Searcy Bay. This is a critical sanctuary zone for Marine Park 3 and for the whole of the Marine Park network, with a major breeding colony for the endangered Australian Sea Lion, critical endangered raptor habitat and a diversity of shoreline, reef and deep water habitats. FOSB also put forward proposals for sanctuary zones at Smooth Pool (in Sceale Bay) and Jones Island (in Baird Bay).
The fifth meeting will be held in late April or early May. This meeting will be the final meeting at which input from the community about sanctuary zone boundaries will be received. The process of determining final sanctuary zone boundaries will then involve input from the scientific working group and peak stakeholder representatives before the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources (Paul Caica) announces the final sanctuary zone boundaries.
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Michele
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« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2011, 04:59:33 AM » |
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« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2011, 05:54:24 AM » |
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The final meeting of the Marine Park Local Area Group (MPLAG) for Marine Parks 3 and 4 was held at the Port Kenny Golf Club on Tuesday 3rd May 2011. Two zoning scenarios were presented, one which was supported by the majority of MPLAG members, and the other was presented by FOSB member David Letch, which was supported by a minority of MPLAG members. Both scenarios will be considered in the next stage of the process, which will be directed by DENR.
The MPLAG meetings have been part of an extensive consultative process, and now that the work of the MPLAGs is complete, I am now able to share some of my experience with the broader community.
Many people will be aware of the negative publicity about marine parks, and in particular, marine park sanctuary zones, that has been generated by an alliance of professional and recreational fishers. This opposition extended into MPLAG discussions, and is reflected in the majority supported sanctuary zone scenario put forward by the MPLAG for Marine Parks 3 & 4. The majority-supported submission included only 8% of the Marine Park area in sanctuary zones, whereas the scenario I put forward included approximately 23% of the Marine Park area in sanctuary zones.
DENR conducted a rapid analysis of both scenarios, assessing them against the design criteria for the Marine Park network. These design criteria were established to ensure that the Marine Park network is effective in providing a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine reserves, (the design criteria can be viewed on the SA Govt. Marine Park website; both scenarios presented by the MPLAG can also be viewed on that website). The results of the analysis revealed that the majority-supported scenario clearly failed to address the design criteria. Put simply, the suggested sanctuary zones were too small, high conservation areas were omitted, and marine uses other than fishing were ignored. The majority-supported scenario was put forward by people who were only interested in retaining access to areas that they wanted to fish in; the design criteria and the existence of endangered species was just an inconvenience for them.
It is disappointing that recreational fishers in particular showed no willingness to accept the conservation value of areas like Nicholas Baudin Island, Cape Blanche, Smooth Pool, or Jones Island. I found it astounding that professional fishers were willing to consider larger sanctuary zones around the crucial Australian Sea Lion colony of Nicholas Baudin Island, but recreational fishers were not. They wanted to continue to drop their crayfish pots around this important breeding colony for an endangered species. So professionals, whose livelihoods depend on fishing, could see the need to protect sea lion colonies in sanctuary zones, but recreational fishers, who fish in their spare time as a hobby, would not.
Supporters of marine parks can take comfort in the fact that the Government remain committed to delivering an effective marine park network that caters for all users of the marine environment, and not just the interests of fishers.
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Michele
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« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2011, 01:50:38 AM » |
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The Local Area Groups have been disbanded following the final meetings (meeting 5) in May of this year. Since then, the State Government has appointed a Marine Parks Advisory Council to assist in providing further zoning and management planning advice.
In a separate development, a Legislative Council Select Committee on Marine Parks in South Australia has been established to investigate issues and claims about the process. The Friends of Sceale Bay have made a written submission to the Select Committee and will also appear before the Committee to provide evidence. The Committee will visit Streaky Bay on Novemeber 17th to hear evidence.
FOSB anticipate that the State Government will announce Marine Park Sanctuary Zone boundaries in December.
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SEARCY
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« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2012, 01:16:28 AM » |
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The Friends of Sceale Bay have presented a submission to the South Australian Government as part of the latest round of public consultation on Marine Parks in South Australia.
This round of public consultation follows from the outcomes of a key stakeholder meeting which took place following the disbanding of the Local Area Groups (LAG) in May 2012. The South Australian Government then released a new version of proposed draft boundaries for the Sanctuary Zones of each of the State's 19 new Marine Parks.
Our submission points out some serious deficiencies in the proposed Sanctuary Zones for Marine Park 3 (West Coast Bays), which covers the Chain of Bays. In particular, we have argued for the placement of a Sanctuary Zone at Cape Blanche (which was proposed in the original "Starting Point" scenario put forward by the Department of Environment and continually supported by conservation representatives during the LAG meetings).
Cape Blanche, and the important Australian Sea Lion Colony at Nicholas Baudin Island, are iconic sites for marine conservation in South Australian waters. These critical habitats must be protected within a Sanctuary Zone for there to be any credible conservation outcome, not only for Marine Park 3, but for the entire Marine Park network.
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