G'day Folks,

I am a DEH Marine Parks Community Engagement Officer. My role is to ensure that everyone who is interested in Marine Parks is informed and that they are able to express their views to DEH during the process to develop SA's marine parks. I do spend a fair amount of time out of the office, but I'll monitor this forum regularly and do my best to answer questions.

Marine parks is not about fishing or fisheries management in a direct sense. It is about conserving representative examples of marine ecosystems which includes fish but also other parts of the ecosystem like invertebrates, plants and substrates.

When the outer boundaries are released (later this year, once they have been approved by the Marine Parks Council and the Minister) there will be the first consultation period. The outer boundaries themselves are really a "heads up" process as it tells everyone: this is going to be a marine park in a couple of years time, get involved now through the various consultation opportunities or through your local marine park committee (to be formed later) and help DEH develop a management plan and zoning that considers social, economic and local knowledge as well as science. It will take until the end of 2010 to develop management and zoning plans.

In my mind this is not a tradeoff-do we choose environment or social/economics? It is more about long term versus short term. The more we learn about our environment the more we see that a healthy diverse environment will support our community (including recreational fishing) better than a degraded one. 30 years ago people complained about national parks now they are some of our most treasured community assets.

If any of you have any questions that I could answer for you I'd be happy to try. I will be at the following locations, conducting information sessions:

Port Noarlunga, (by the carpark, near the jetty)
Saturday September 20th
10am-4pm

Port Adelaide, (at the wharf, near the lighthouse)
Sunday September 21st
10am-4pm

Rundle Mall, (just east of Gawler Place)
Thursday September 25th
10am-5.45pm

and my colleagues will be at:

West Beach, (at Adelaide Shores boat ramp)
Saturday September 27th
10am-4pm

St. Kilda, (at the boat ramp)
Sunday September 28th
10am-4pm

Come and talk to us in person, post a question here, email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call me on 8463 4854 or 0411 285 902

Thanks,
Andy

Good onya Andy, thanks for making the effort to come in here and share your time with us.
I understand that this is a very hot topic at the moment, with mixed reactions.
I personally am in favour of positive steps toward consevation,but all I ask as a member of the public, is that the governing body remain transperant through the process. (which you seem to be doing so far).
Cheers.

Fantastic, at last someone we can talk to! :-\

Andy, in the past I've had plenty of input amd concerns regarding the proposed marine parks, but I've found our previous Environmental Minister (Gail Gago) and her office, particularly difficult to deal with, and reluctant to return calls or answer questions on the subject.

I've monitored the institution of marine parks in other states, and I've seen the concerns and worries expressed by recreational fishermen in these other states since the introduction of their parks! I've seen marine parks instituted, and then a dredge for commercial shipping run through the park (PPB heads), or the park re-zoned/moved for other commercial activity whilst still excluding recreational fishemen and other waterway user groups.

In essence, I support the idea of marine parks, and I think we'd be silly not to support the idea of conserving valuable areas, however I've had some very grave concerns about the lack of transparency when it comes to marine parks, and a fear that they will end up as little more than "exclusion zones" placed in areas predominantly visited and utilised by recreational fisherman/holiday makers/tourists.

We've all seen the model for the "Encounter" park released in 2005, and we've been told that there will be 19 marine parks instituted around the state, although no details will be released on the other 18 parks.

I cannot understand why the minister cannot release details on these parks though (placement,size, area, boundaries, zoning, type of habitat to be protected, etc, etc and the reasoning/investigation/research behind these decisions) until AFTER the bill has been passed and we have no choice other than to have marine parks! This lack of transparency leads me to believe our government is hiding information from us which may prove detrimental to our recreational activities and our decision making processes.

Likewise, I find it concerning that the minister will be given power to alter marine park boundaries at any stage, which leads me to believe the possibility exists for the parks to become much much larger than first stated, and exclude fishermen from many previously accessible areas.

If we could be informed as to exactly where the marine parks are to be placed, the size of the marine parks, the boundaries of the marine parks, the individual zoning within the marine parks, and the type of habitat to be protected, we could then examine the information and make "informed" decisions as to the validity of each park. As it currently stands though, how are we expected to make informed decisions with no information currently available, and knowing that information will only be forthcoming once it's too late, and the bill has already been passed to allow marine parks?

Likewise, how are we to make informed decisions on the validity of a marine park, when we know at any time the minister can alter the boundaries and change the park?

Without answers and transparency, I'm very reluctant to show any support to the entire marine park issue, and I treat the issue with severe scepticism and fear that these parks will only be introduced as a display of government "action" to secure the green vote, and to keep up with other states and countries who have already instituted a system of marine parks.

I'll try to make it to Pt Adelaide on the 21st to make personal contact and discuss a few concerns, many of which are too lengthy to discuss here.

A very sceptical and suspicious
Ranger

onya Ranger

mental note.....STFU YoBBo.
Ranger will say it betterer.

Bravo extremely well said, I think everyone thinks the same thing.....

Andy welcome to our site,

I read your post with interest,

I like Ranger hope to be there on the 21st,
I hope you will excuse my sceptical approach, but I, like many others, have tried without any success to find out about the proposed marine parks on many occassions over the last few years.
The best I have got was a very delayed email response telling me stuff I already knew.
But they did put my name on the stakeholders list. wow.
I feel that the handling of this matter with regard to informing the public feels a lot like secret service stuff as we await to get shafted by the government, yet again.

Is there a map of the proposed marine park locations?

Thahn we got em here mate

Tom are you TRYING to make us laugh? :icon_lol: :icon_lol: :icon_lol:

For years now we've been trying to get information on these marine parks! The best we can offer is a map showing 19 dots for proposed locations, www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts/marineparks/locations.html
but there is no information whatsoever forthcoming on the size of the marine parks, what areas they will cover, where they're gonna be, what zones will be included in each, what habitats they're preserving, etc, etc, etc.

There was only ever ONE detailed map released, and that was a MODEL for the ENCOUNTER marine park which covers covers 2,400 km2 of coast and ocean between the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. Quite a large area I'm sure you'd agree, and that's only ONE of these 19 parks. Here's the detailed info on that one: www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts/encounter_marine_park.html

Now let's SUPPOSE that each marine park will be roughly the same size (but we don't know that), we'd be looking somewhere in the vicinity of 48,000 km2. That's one huge chunk of coastline, and then how much of that is gonna be closed to recreational fishing or a complete exclusion zone? Gets scary don't it!!!

You will find all the information they've released here:
www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts/marineparks.html

Good luck in gaining anymore info though, coz many have tried before you! It seems up until, now they're intent on keeping everything hidden, then when it's too late to change anything they're gonna open everything up for a very short period of "public consultation" in which time no-one will be able to truly examine all the info, collate reports/results to come up with informed input, put foreward their objections and/or alternatives, and then the marine parks will be here!

So look at it this way! the marine park issue first raised it's head here back in 2002. Now here we are in 2009, and we still dont know if the government themselves have finished collating data and deciding on where the marine parks will be, what size they are, what area they will cover, etc, etc. So they've had 7 years so far to come up with a plan, but how long are they gonna give US for public consultation to do the same thing?

Of course, regardless of this, don't forget the minister will have the power to alter the parks at any time. So if they decide they wanna put up a desal plant or other commercial enterprise, they'll just move the park boundary to free up an area to allow that (as has been done interstate). Or if they wanna placate greens to gain votes, they'll make the parks even bigger. Then there's nothing to say it's gonna stop at only 19 parks, that number may well grow with time as it has in other states!

I wanna see just how many thousand square kilometres of waterway we're gonna be looking at, and exactly where they're gonna be, and I wanna know about the representative habitat in each area, and what research has gone into determining these are the areas we need to conserve. Have a look at the 19 dots on the state map yourself, you'll see many of them have been placed in prime fishing/tourist locations, and we still dont know how much of the unknown sized parks will be zoned as exclusion areas to hook and line fishing, or total exclusion areas.

Also remember, at the end of the day, these arent being put there to save any threatened or endangered species. There wont be a park to protect leafy sea dragons, or a park to protect the spawning giant cuttlefish. That's not the point of a marine park!Instead these parks are merely "representative habitats" which means an area representative of many others to be found around the state.

For further information and updates I'd suggest contacting Trevor Watts (SARFAC) as he's our representative on the new Marine Parks Council established a few months back. And I'd suggest we ALL get behind Trevor if we've got something to say,coz once the parks are here it's too late to turn back!

Andy, as you can see by my whinging so far, I've got plenty of questions I want answered, and I sincerely hope you're the person to do it. I truly do thank you for taking the time to come speak with us about a matter which has been causing endless frustration and concern for many!

My input, questions and concerns in this thread are put forth on a personal level, merely as a concerned recreational fisherman, and NOT as a representative of the strikehook website/staff or their views on this subject.

Now that you've already got a few of my questions to answer, I'd like to go on with a few more which your own post has raised.


Does this mean that the outer boundaries are "non-negotiable" during the period of public consultation, and OUR input will merely be towards zoning within the parks?


Could you fill us in a little on your own background and the qualifications required to be a Marine Parks Community Engagement Officer?


If a marine park is a "representative example" that would lead me to believe there could be many areas around the state containing this same representative example of marine biota. Should public input be adverse to the placement of a particular marine park, does the presence of other areas containing the same representative example provide avenues for relocatiton elsewhere in the state of any marine park which the public considers unsuitable in it's current proposed location?


How does one become a member of a local marine park committee once they are formed, and what are the pre-requisites/requirements for a committee member?

Marine parks will not be established until 2010, but when is the marine parks bill in parliament due to be passed, if it hasn't already?

How long will the period of public consultation be?

Will the public be given access to all the scientific data, research papers and background information which has gone towards determining the suitability of each marine park?

I thank you again for your input, and anxiously await your reply.

Regards Ranger

Seems like they are trying to keep us out of already hard to access spots that has made SA famous in regards to Bluewater fishing. Maybe they should think about the Jetties where alot of the real damage gets done!

And the area around KI appart from the commercial sector bugger all of the rec anglers can get out there more than 10days a year. Great spot to put a sanctuary???? Seems like a heap of greeny SHIT to me!

But I am willing to listen if I can see a CLEAR map of where the proposed sanctuarys are to be located. I have a fair idea that this wont happen until its too late!

Andy PROVE ME WRONG

Like i said in store we have little give away folders with the title MARINE PARKS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA in side there is a Introduction pamphlet, a MAP of proposed marine parks for S.A.,and a draft zoning plan for around victor harbour :
Come in and get one

Will the Marine Parks in Gulf St Vincent encompass all mangrove estuary areas?

Adam, is this new information released and a REAL map showing ACTUAL parks and park boundaries, or merely a reproduction of what we've already seen (19 dots on a map of SA) and what I've posted here already from www.environment.sa.gov.au ?

ie, this: