- Australian marine scientists are calling
for urgent government action to protect the Great Barrier Reef after warning
that the world's largest marine park is slowly dying.
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- The Australian Conservation Foundation
says the reef, which stretches 2,000km along the east coast, is "dying
a death of a thousand cuts".
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- The Federation wants an immediate ban
on trawling and all exploration for shale oil mining.
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- Director Don Henry also called for control
of what he described as massive pollution from sugar and cattle industries
along the coast.
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- The warning follows a government announcement
that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park will be extended by some 6,000
square kilometres to include coastal areas considered essential to the
reef's survival.
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- It also announced it would impose a maximum
A$1m (US$630,000) fine for illegal prawn trawling to help protect vulnerable
marine life.
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- The Australian Conservation Foundation
welcomed the reforms, but said the reef needed more than a one-off response.
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- "As a nation, the reef gives us
A$1bn from tourism. We cannot just sit back and watch it disappear before
our eyes," Mr Henry said.
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- Sea life destroyed
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- The new measures follow a five-year government
study which found that trawling in the Great Barrier Reef park had destroyed
more than half of the area's most vulnerable seabed animals.
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- It discovered that one prawn trawler
can remove up to a quarter of the seabed life as it passes over an area,
while trawling 13 times over the same area can destroy up to 90% of seabed
life.
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- Damaged seabed life can take up to 20
years to recover.
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- The government also instructed the park
authorities to investigate, and if possible prosecute, up to 50 identified
illegal trawlers.
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