❓ A parliamentary question regarding scientific monitoring of Ningaloo Marine Park's water quality, human impacts, and ecosystem changes, and the Minister's response outlining past and present monitoring efforts and research.
AnsweredQoN 863Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the Ningaloo Marine Park and ask - (1) What, if any, ongoing scientific monitoring of - (a) water quality; (b) human-induced impacts; (c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park? (2) Will the minister provide the results of such monitoring? (3) What scientific evidence can the minister provide that Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed in an environmentally sustainable manner? Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(1) What, if any, ongoing scientific monitoring of - (a) water quality; (b) human-induced impacts; (c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park? (2) Will the minister provide the results of such monitoring? (3) What scientific evidence can the minister provide that Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed in an environmentally sustainable manner? Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(b) human-induced impacts; (c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park?
(c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park?
is being carried out in the marine park?
(3) What scientific evidence can the minister provide that Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed in an environmentally sustainable manner? Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park.
(3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(1) What, if any, ongoing scientific monitoring of - (a) water quality; (b) human-induced impacts; (c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park? (2) Will the minister provide the results of such monitoring? (3) What scientific evidence can the minister provide that Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed in an environmentally sustainable manner? Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(b) human-induced impacts; (c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park?
(c) ecosystem changes; is being carried out in the marine park?
is being carried out in the marine park?
(3) What scientific evidence can the minister provide that Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed in an environmentally sustainable manner? Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(1) (a) Water and sediment quality studies have been undertaken in the past in the Ningaloo Marine Park. No water quality monitoring is being undertaken at present. (b) The Department of Conservation and Land Management established a network of 78 permanent long-term benthic monitoring sites in the marine park between 1998 and 2001. The network was established to monitor the condition of seabed communities in response to human-induced impacts and natural processes. Monitoring studies were conducted at Coral Bay in the mid 1990s in response to concerns about contaminants entering Ningaloo Marine Park via ground water. (c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park. (2) The research database for Ningaloo Marine Park that is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Land Management lists more than 300 publications between 1992 and 2003 that relate to the Ningaloo Marine Park. Monitoring results are contained within some of those publications. (3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
(c) Monitoring programs to assess the recovery rate of coral reefs damaged by natural processes in Ningaloo Marine Park have also been established. Recent research by Edith Cowan University has investigated the impacts of recreational fishing on the ecosystem in Ningaloo Marine Park.
(3) The results of the monitoring program outlined above, in combination with the knowledge that there are no waste water discharges into Ningaloo Marine Park and no major direct impacts from activities such as dredging, suggest that from these points of view the ecosystem of Ningaloo Marine Park is being managed sustainably. A significant proportion of the $5 million research and monitoring program for Ningaloo, which was announced by the Premier in July this year, will be used to extend existing monitoring programs, to establish new monitoring programs for key natural values of Ningaloo Marine Park and to continue to investigate the ecosystem impacts of recreational fishing. The “Ningaloo Marine Park Draft Management Plan and Indicative Management Plans for the Extension to the Existing Park and the Muiron Islands Marine Management Area 2004”, which is currently open for public submission, provides a broad, scientifically referenced description of the ecological values of the marine park.
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