Australia's marine conservation

Abstract

The world's handling of marine living resources has been clearly less than successful. In particular our abuse of the natural bounty of fisheries has been disgraceful, with most major stocks overfished, and some of the richest, like the cod on the West Atlantic Grand Banks, virtually destroyed. Greed and politics have played their part, but scientists have also been to blame. Setting "maximum sustainable yields" in highly variable systems has proved impossible. Almost irresistable pressures from fishers in good years and a rapid increase in fishing technology and navigation has set the scene for these disasters. Coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove forests, some of the world's most productive ecosystems, have been. degraded, cleared and fragmented as a consequence of growing human populations, over-exploitation, and poor hinterland management. As we have watched and researched the deterioration of our marine world we have learned many of the reasons, but our responses have been extremely slow.