About

The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) is calling for the protection of Australia's portion of the Coral Sea. At around one million square killometres, a no-take reserve of this size would form the world's largest protected area, providing a safe haven for globally threatened species. The Coral Sea Heritage Park would help secure a sustainable future for marine tourism and fishing operations along the tropical East Coast.
 
The Coral Sea is an environmental and historic treasure that lies between the eastern boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine park and waters off Papua New Guinea (see map below).
 
This tropical marine jewel is one of the few places on Earth where you can still find large numbers of big ocean fish. It’s also home to whales, dolphins, sharks, rays, turtles, seabirds and hundreds of species of corals and colourful reef fish.
 
Within Australian waters, the Coral Sea has more than 25 spectacular coral reefs, remote islands, towering underwater mountains and deep-sea canyons.
 
The Coral Sea has an important place in Australia’s history. It was the scene of a major Battle in World War II that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific, and helped to secure our peace and freedom.
 
Today, the Coral Sea is under pressure from tuna and billfish longlining and other types of fishing, over 100 tonnes of sharks are caught each year.
 
A unique alliance has formed to call for a large no-take marine reserve to protect the area’s marine wildlife and commemorate the legacy of the Coral Sea forever.
 
Fishing
 
The are two Federally regulated fisheries in the Coral Sea that will be directly impacted by this proposal. A fair and adequate compensation package is required in order to ensure these businesses are not disadvantaged and that fishing effort is not simply shifted into other areas already under significant pressure.
 
The world’s oceans are in trouble. Fishery after fishery is collapsing due to industrial scale overfishing combined with poor management by regulatory agencies.
 
Ninety per cent of the biomass of the world’s large predatory ocean fish have been wiped out in the last 50 years. Overfishing of yellowfin and bigeye tuna  is a major concern throughout the Central and Western Pacific. Even in the Coral Sea, both these species are in decline due to overfishing.
 
Over 100 tonnes of shark are taken each year from Australia’s Coral Sea as tuna fishing “bycatch”. The carcasses are landed and finned, and the fins exported to Asia.
 
And it’s not just fish that are affected by overfishing.  Longline hooks set for tuna and billfish also catch seabirds and threatened sea turtles. A protected, no-take park in the Coral Sea would offer a safe haven for large predatory ocean fish, seabirds and turtles and the chance to help them survive.