Coasts and oceans
Theme commentary
Trevor J Ward, Greenward Consulting, Perth, Western Australia
Alan Butler, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Brisbane, Queensland
prepared for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, 2006
Conclusions and key issues
The overall conclusion that can be drawn from this analysis is that in 2006, most, if not all, of the issues identified and assessed in both the 1996 and the 2001 national State of the Environment reports still remain to be resolved. Some issues have changed in importance, but all have been foreshadowed in earlier state of the environment reports.
This calls into question the effectiveness of Australia’s responses to identified key national problems that afflict coastal and marine ecosystems, and particularly the reforms in governance that are required to enable a move away from short-term and sectoral management towards a more systematic, integrated and planned approach to managing coast and ocean issues. Such reform would not only deliver better solutions (hence increasing the effectiveness of governance) but would also increase efficiency through reducing the large amount of existing duplication and redundancy in governance systems, and ultimately achieve reduced monetary costs to governments, communities and the private sector for management of ocean and coastal issues.
The most all-pervading systemic problem that underpins almost all the issues of managing Australia’s coasts and oceans is the lack of any systematic and strategic policy or operational framework that provides for the national-level monitoring and assessment of the condition of the ocean features, biodiversity or key resources. Only for commercial fisheries that are Commonwealth-managed is there an acceptable basic level of analysis and public reporting that can inform national management, and establish the trends in commercial fish stocks of national importance. Although the Commonwealth fisheries reporting does not extend to bycatch or other associated environmental issues, the improving fisheries reporting and public accountability has provided the basis for identifying the issues, and now corrective responses (such as the fisheries restructure package announced in November 2005, and requirements imposed under the EPBC Act) can be implemented with appropriate urgency.
The key issues
There are nine key issues identified in this report. None of these is new, but each has increased in profile and importance since 2001:
1. The effects of existing changes in the climate on biodiversity and fisheries resources
We now know that there are many changes underway that are measurable and will have an important ecological and economic impact on the oceans and their values; we know that the risk of major regime shift is increasing; but as yet almost no attention is paid to the preparation of management systems for the inevitable effects of these changes.
2. The continuing decline of a number of our commercial fish stocks
The planned major reductions in total allowable catch (quotas) and consequent reduction in fishing effort is expected to make a significant improvement to Commonwealth-managed fish stocks, and similar responses may be needed for some state-managed fisheries; but there is still limited reporting of bycatch and other ecological interactions of fisheries, so the environmental sustainability of fishing cannot be assessed on a national scale.
3. The extreme vulnerability of sharks, rays and sawfish as a group
It is now recognised that this group of species is highly vulnerable to the combined effects of fishing, coastal habitat changes and climate impacts, and requires urgent management attention.
4. The need for a systematic national approach to management of recreational fishing
Recreational fishing may affect some fish stocks more than commercial fishing does. The impacts are likely to be increasing and, despite increasing management efforts, it is only weakly managed; a national response is now required.
5. The need to develop an integrated national framework, including environmental standards, for management and auditing of the aquaculture industry
The likely growth of the aquaculture industry will depend on the availability of high quality sites, but given the history of pollution and habitat impacts there will be an inevitable increase in environmental issues as the industry expands.
6. The limited success in implementing the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA)
This important policy continues to be implemented piecemeal by the Australia Government and each of the states and territory governments in different ways, and it is not demonstrably leading towards achievement of its aims—that is, towards a system that includes a representative sample of all Australia’s marine ecosystems, of adequate size and design, and with adequate monitoring and integrated management, to protect them against likely threats. The lack of a systematic performance assessment and reporting system prevents an informed analysis of the achievements of the NRSMPA;
7. The limited effectiveness of regional marine planning as a solution to the problem of a lack of integrated management of ocean and coastal ecosystems and resources
While Australia’s Oceans Policy established the appropriate policy platform, it has not been able to be translated into an operational national (states, territories and commonwealth together) system that provides integrated outcomes in relation to ecosystem-based management, security for resource-based industries, and biodiversity protection; now that regional marine planning has been clearly identified as a Commonwealth planning instrument, there is an enhanced and urgent need to develop effective procedures to secure highly coordinated arrangements with the states and territories for the integrated and ecosystem-based management of inshore waters that complements the developing Commonwealth system.
8. The predominance in all governments of a reactive rather than proactive approach to managing environmental issues in coastal ecosystems
The lack of a systematic national approach to coastal issues of pollution and habitat loss, coordinated across the three levels of government, prevents systematic capture of appropriate information and knowledge that would be able to underpin high quality and strategic management decisions that provide for sustainable development of Australia’s coastal and ocean resources and for orderly adaptation to inevitable changes.
9. The need for national assessment of coastal and ocean conditions
Throughout this commentary, we have reported limited, indicative data but remark that there is no national monitoring. Despite more than a decade of work to establish indicators, the practical issues of capturing data on these coast and ocean indicators have not been resolved, and there are no systems in place that will routinely compile environmental statistics on key indicators of condition. Effective State of the Environment reporting should be based firstly on national status and trends in key indicators, and secondly on comparison with established ‘benchmark’ values for those indicators (like those that are used to decide whether a fishery is ‘overfished’); neither is currently available. Based on a national coordinated system of monitoring (including reference sites), a national audit of status and trends for coastal and ocean ecosystems needs to be developed and implemented with urgency to establish an appropriate set of benchmarks, to underpin policy implementation in the major government programmes, and to report to Australians about the real effectiveness of the many large investments of government funds in coastal and ocean management in recent years.
The conditions
Much of Australia’s ocean appears to be in good condition, particularly the offshore waters, and the biodiversity and many of the resources of our coastal and ocean ecosystems appear to be in reasonably good shape. There is a risk that Australians remain complacent simply because the appropriate observation systems are not in place. There are some important danger signs that, elsewhere in the world, have led to major environmental problems, and can only be ignored at our peril. The coasts, estuaries and some nearshore waters adjacent to urban areas are degraded—‘dead zones’ appear to be increasing, not decreasing. Also, some of the areas that are remote from the cities are degraded. For example, while the estuaries of tropical Australia are remote, most are heavily fished, some are affected by sediment and agricultural chemical transport from the hinterlands, some of their species are threatened, and their associated wetlands are increasingly being altered by changing rainfall regimes and seawater incursions. As a result, few of these estuaries are in pristine condition. Nationally, a number of Australia’s fish stocks are at alarmingly low levels. While Australia’s natural systems have great appeal for tourism and recreation, because they are still in good shape compared with those of other countries, taken together, there are a number of early warning signals that should be alerting us to the need to take corrective action, before degradation becomes irreversible.
The pressures
As previously reported in 1996 and in 2001, the major pressures are estuarine and coastal—involving nutrients, sediments, pollution from agriculture and industry; sewage discharges; the urban sprawl of cities; the colonisation by invasive species; and the use of coastal land for tourism and industry. In addition to this, fishing is everywhere. Recreational fishing is concentrated in coastal areas and the islands, while commercial fishing operates in all waters, and increasingly in the most remote areas and depths. Illegal fishing is a major issue in the offshore waters and remote island groups. The combined fishing effort puts pressure on fish stocks, and on the associated species, habitats and ecosystems. Changes in climate, including rainfall patterns, storm frequency and sea level are likely to have an increasingly important impact on the biodiversity and infrastructure of coastal systems, and on the fisheries in estuaries, coastal and ocean ecosystems.
Our responses
Broadly, the main pressures on Australia’s coastal and ocean ecosystems are now well recognised. Although there are many appropriate programmes in place at all levels of government and in the private sector to reduce these pressures, as yet they seem only weakly coordinated or integrated, and the national-level effectiveness of many of them has not been assessed to determine if they have been wise investments.
There are many local initiatives to reduce pressures on the coast, often in partnership between local community, local government, non-government organisations, state and territory governments and the Australian Government. These responses are generally effective in focusing on specific threats, and can reduce short-term impacts, but most lack a strategic approach to threat identification, analysis, mitigation or intervention.
At the State and Territory level, there are many relevant Acts and consultative processes, but some of the responses appear to be short term and reactive, without an obvious systematic approach to resolving the fundamentals of the environmental issues. There is a risk that such responses are tackling the symptoms and not dealing with the causes, particularly for coastal issues.
At the Commonwealth level, the main responses dealing with environment issues have been through regional marine planning, through the EPBC Act, the Fisheries Management Act, and programmes implemented through the natural resources management system. For coastal and marine systems, these collective responses lack effective integration, both within the Commonwealth and with other levels of government. The lack of a pro-active integrated and national approach, the lack of well-substantiated models for prediction of impacts, and little measurement or verification of environmental outcomes, leaves a considerable gap in Australia’s knowledge base. It may be leaving the ecosystems, particularly the coastal ecosystems and their resources, at risk.