AUSTRALIA’S peak boating body, the Boating Industries Alliance Australia, is calling on the
Government to take positive action to ensure Australia’s five million boaters and fishers are not “locked out” of any proposed Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network.
A BIAA media release issued last week states: Foreign multinational environmental groups have waded into Australia’s Marine Park planning process demanding the Government zone thousands of kilometres of Australia’s oceans to ‘Green’, effectively locking Australia’s boaters and fishers out of these areas forever. There is no science to support these views and no evidence that the proposed zones will in any way be beneficial to the environment or bio-diversity.
The BIAA fully supports the principles of marine reserves, however, has maintained a consistent position that the zoning must be science and evidence based. “We remain very concerned that the current proposals have no basis in science or fact”, said Nik Parker, General Manager of the BIAA.
“The finalisation of the plans should only occur once the science that justifies them has been made public and draft management plans have been offered for public consideration”, he said, adding “this also cannot be considered in isolation of the social and economic impacts.”
Read the complete BIAA statement HERE.
