Australia opens vast swaths of famed marine parks to fishing
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/australia-opens-vast-swaths-of-famed-marine-parks-to-fishing
Australia is known for protecting its sea life in a 3.3 million square kilometer (1.3 million square mile) system of marine parks that cover 36 percent of the country’s oceans.
The protection of those parks is now at stake, as the government last week approved five long-awaited management plans covering 44 parks. The new plans open an area almost the size of Japan to commercial and recreational fishing compared to the original plans formed by the previous government when the parks were proclaimed in 2012.
A coalition of opposition parties attempted to block the new plans in parliament on Tuesday but failed.
Conservation groups and hundreds of marine scientists have voiced vehement opposition to the government’s new plans.
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