UWA’s Professor Jessica Meeuwig is calling for large marine sanctuaries to protect biodiversity, contribute to sustainable fisheries and provide some insurance for our WA marine environment.

Prof. Meeuwig says WA is special because it is a big state with 13,500km of coastline and one of the few places in the world where coastal waters stretch from warm tropics to cold southern ocean.

UWA’s Professor Jessica Meeuwig believes large marine sanctuaries are needed for commercial and environmental protection of our fish resources / Image: Istockphoto

“The Leeuwin Current brings warm northern water southwards with very little nutrient so our fisheries are not very productive,” Prof. Meeuwig says.

“This low productivity means our fish grow to be really old - the Western Blue Groper can live to 90 years.

“Up to fifty percent of fish near Rottnest Island and up to eighty percent of fish off the south coast are unique to WA.”

As Director at the Centre for Marine Futures at UWA, Prof. Meeuwig and her team are researching WA fish species using baited underwater stereo cameras.

They drop up to fifteen sets of cameras into water about 30 metres deep which they leave for an hour. They have about 8,000 hours of film to review to identify fish species, their number and size as well as some rather interesting behaviour.

“From the Abrolhos Island to Middle Island we have mapped biodiversity hotspots and how they are related to different habitats and whether they are in protected areas; to establish a benchmark,” Prof Meeuwig says.

“The Baldchin Groper, Dhufish and Pink Schnapper as so severely over-exploited that the Department of Fisheries is calling for a fifty percent reduction in catch immediately.

“Our research at the Abrolhos has found an eighty percent decline in Red Throat Emperor and Coral Trout in the past five years.

“One prediction of climate change is, as oceans warm, our fish will move south but the big challenge is where do they go and how do we manage them?”

Prof. Meeuwig suggests the answer lies in creating more marine sanctuaries.

“This is not about banning fishing. I love eating fish, I strongly support commercial fishing and I believe recreational fishing is a healthy pastime,” Prof. Meeuwig says.

“The fishers can have up to eighty percent of the ocean but let’s leave the rest aside as sanctuaries.”

Prof. Meeuwig says research from all over the world shows sanctuary zones have twice the number of fish and three times the biomass.

“At the Great Barrier Reef the biomass of legal size fish at the no-take zone was five times higher than elsewhere.

“Inside the protected areas at the Abrolhos we found there were more big old females that can lay eight times more eggs than smaller younger fish.

“Evidence from commercial fishermen shows they make more money around sanctuary zones because of the spill over of excess fish.

“Marine sanctuaries will give us some insurance, more time to study and a chance for breeding stock to survive.” 

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