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Draft Camden Sound : Major improvements needed!

The government’s proposed Camden Sound Marine Park on the Kimberley coast covers 7,062 square kilometres and includes – but doesn’t necessarily protect - a wide range of marine and marine. It was released for three months public comment by Premier Barnett on 22nd October.

There are many flaws in the proposed marine park that need to be corrected in the final plan. Here are five key ones:

1. Only 13% of the marine park is proposed to be fully protected as ‘sanctuary zone’. Accordingly, the proposed Camden Sound Marine Park falls far short of international and Australian scientific benchmarks, as adopted with Ningaloo Reef Marine Park (34% sanctuary) and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (33% sanctuary).

2. The boundary of the proposed Camden Sound Marine Park excludes over half of the Kimberley’s famous Humpback nursery area. Important whale calving areas from south of Broome up the Dampier Peninsula and out to Adele Island have been excluded due to industrialisation plans.

3. Only 23% of the proposed park is designated as ‘Special purpose zone for Whale conservation’. While this zone provides some additional protection for Humpback mothers and their calves, it does not provide them with full protection from commercial and recreational fishing and boating (see Table 6, p36).

4. Over 80% of the park will be open to a combination of mining, oil and gas development and commercial fishing, including trawling. Only the coral reef systems at Champagney Island group and Montgomery Islands reef (approx 936 square kilometres) would be protected under this plan.

5. The southern boundaries of the park have been compromised by being drawn to avoid mining tenements. This has led to the omission of important conservation and tourism areas such as Walcott Inlet, , Collier Bay and .

As with any new conservation reserves in the Kimberley, the new marine parks should be created with the consent of the area’s Traditional Owners and should include provision for joint management and compatible economic development opportunities, such as culture-based tourism.

Please let the government know that the proposed marine park is not adequate to protect the amazing sealife and other natural values of this part of the Kimberley coast and it must be substantially upgraded in overall extent and in the size and distribution of crucial sanctuary zones.

There is a fundamental issue about the credibility and effectiveness of protected areas at stake here. Conservation groups have been fighting to see the creation of protected areas on land and water for well over 50 years. It is a tough call, but most would rather see no progress on this front rather than see the entire notion and purpose of protected areas be undermined through the creation of marine parks that are wide open for damaging and polluting industries and activities. If the government wants to claim ‘green credits’ by creating new parks, they need to be fair dinkum parks, not parks for mining and fishing.