Australia: With whales as a benchmark, enviros say country's marine biodiversity largely unprotected
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jul 30, 2010 (IPS) - In early July, whales from the world’s largest population of humpbacks began arriving in the warm, subtropical waters off Australia’s north-west coast to breed and nurse their young.
From May each year, some 22,000 humpbacks make the pilgrimage up Australia’s west coast from their Antarctic feeding grounds before beginning the return journey in September.
The whales, which usually grow to between 12 and 16 metres when mature, constitute just a tiny fraction of the wide variety of life supported by Australia’s marine ecosystem, considered to be the most biologically diverse on the planet.
But in recent months, environmentalists around Australia have been expressing concern that the marine environment is largely unprotected from threats like overfishing and the exploration and production of oil and gas.
While the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard is aiming to have a system of marine reserves in place by 2012, less than five percent of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone is currently protected.