The Australian 30/11/04 page 5

Reef fishing snarl

WESTERN Australia's powerful recreational fishing lobby has vowed to use a combination of people power and legal muscle to block the expansion of marine protection zones around Ningaloo Reef. Three key fishing groups say they will go to the Supreme Court in order to stop the Gallup Government implimenting its plan to extend no-fishing sanctuary zones around the vast coral reef system.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11550323%255E30417,00.html

Anglers hook into reef zone
David King
December 01, 2004
ANGLERS have signalled they will take legal action to protect recreational fishing zones around Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia after fears the protection area could be extended to include other popular spots.

Western Australia's powerful recreational fishing lobby has begun a concerted investigation of ways to prevent the Gallop Labor Government from expanding the marine protection zones.

While the decision has won the support of the environmental lobby, three key fishing groups are considering seeking an injunction to stop the Government implementing its plan to extend the no-fishing sanctuary zones.

The action could be expanded to also include up to five other locations around the state for which the Government is due to announce new marine protection zones.

The changes planned for Ningaloo could see 34 per cent of the reef locked away from recreational fishing -- a level greater than laws protecting the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland.

RecfishWest, the West Australian Fishing Industry Council and the West Australian Game Fishing Association, have given their in-principle support to a legal challenge, which would be based around a lack of procedural fairness. The lobbyists say the community consultation process used by the Government was flawed and the lack of any avenue for appeal denied them due process.

"We made submissions but weren't taken seriously at all, we were just dismissed," West Australian Game Fishing Association secretary Ian Stagles said. "As there is no appeals process, the only avenue we have is the Supreme Court."

The Government plans to expand Ningaloo Marine Park from 225,000ha to 268,000ha, taking in all 290km of the reef.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11563827%255E2761,00.html

Delay on reef listing
By Belinda Hickman
December 2, 2004

EFFORTS to have Ningaloo Reef nominated for World Heritage listing have been delayed by a year, after the West Australian Government decided to allow more time for community input.

The Gallop Government had aimed to meet this year's December 1 deadline for nominating Australia's longest fringing reef to the Federal Government for inclusion on a list of potential Australian sites for which it would seek World Heritage status.

Environment Minister Judy Edwards said yesterday the process would now be deferred until next year on the advice of a consultative committee.

The committee had identified problems with the bid, including clearly establishing the boundaries of the area to be nominated, completing negotiations with neighbouring pastoral leaseholders and planning for future development at the regional townships of Exmouth and Coral Bay.

"The Government remains strongly committed to having the area nominated," Dr Edwards said.

I just got a brochure from the WA government with a map of the zones in the Ningaloo marine park. I'm not sure whether it is the old zones or the proposed new zones - I couldn't get a decent map from the website.

It looks like it was designed to enhance recreational fishing. There is a series of green (no fishing) and yellow (rec only) zones down the coast with the only blue (open slather) zones reaching the cost being down the southern end. This is great for recreational fishermen. As well as that, a lot of the green zones with accessible coastline have a shore based fishing only zone along the shore. Something like this would be great for SEQ or the NSW coast.

I think this is the map I got:
http://www.ningaloocoast.wa.gov.au/marine_park_map.html

The green zones are no fishing, the yellow zones are rec only and the black lines along the shore in some of the green zones are for shore based rec fishing only.

The map just showing rec fishing zones:

http://www.ningaloocoast.wa.gov.au/marine_park_fishing_map.html

those maps show the new MP boundaries