Latest news with #AustralianMarineConservationSociety
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Report critical test of Great Barrier Reef's health
The Great Barrier Reef's world heritage status is under pressure as the United Nations committee orders a full report on efforts to protect the marine wonder. Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt is in Paris for the World Heritage Committee's 47th session where the committee adopted a draft decision from UNESCO released in May. It recognises sustained action Australia has taken to protect the reef and delivering on past commitments. The decision also requests Australia provide a state of conservation report by February, a more comprehensive review than the progress reports it has been asked to produce in recent years. Should progress on protecting the world heritage site be deemed inadequate following the state of conservation report, it could be recommended for inscription on the 'In Danger' list in 2026. "The full review in 2026 will be a critical test," said Dr Lissa Schindler from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. Climate change remains the biggest threat to the complex ecosystem and the driver of repeat mass coral bleaching events. Land-based runoff from nearby towns, industry and agriculture can further damage the marine landscape, including by contributing to outbreaks of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish. Coastal flooding following natural disasters in Queensland's north have also been exacerbating water quality problems. Flooding impacted more than 700km of the reef. A federal government spokesperson said "state of conservation" reports were routine under Australia's world heritage obligations and the nation had produced the comprehensive reviews in both 2019 and 2022. "Australia is doing more than ever to better manage and protect the reef, including providing unprecedented levels of investment to protect its outstanding universal value," the spokesperson said. Dr Schindler said both federal and state governments could be doing more to protect the reef from deforestation along the coastline and meeting existing water quality targets. Australia also has an opportunity to ramp up its climate ambition, conservation groups argue, with all countries due to submit new 2035 emissions targets under the global climate pact by September. "If Australia wants to protect the reef and keep it off the World Heritage in danger list, then the number one thing it must do is adopt reef-safe climate policies," Dr Schindler said. "That means cutting climate pollution by 90 per cent by 2035 and stopping approvals for new fossil fuel projects." World Wide Fund for Nature Australia chief executive officer Dermot O'Gorman said Australia has an opportunity to set a climate target that would give the reef a "fighting chance". "A strong 2035 target would help protect the reef, the industries that depend on it, and thousands of years of priceless Traditional Owner cultural heritage," he said. The federal government spokesperson said cutting greenhouse gas emissions required international effort. "Climate change is the biggest threat to reefs worldwide, including the Great Barrier Reef, and this threat requires urgent global action."
The Age
07-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
Hectic fish burgers and ‘Happy Meals': Don's team opens seafood diner on the north side
'The initial idea was a really good fish'n'chip shop, but we've come so far from that,' says Gavioli, who connected with Good Fish, a sustainability initiative by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, helping its community understand seafood more deeply. 'I couldn't believe some of the stats: how many different species of prawns we're not eating, all these fish that are [trendy] that we shouldn't be eating as much of,' he says. Seafood comes via Sydney-based supplier Andrew Joseph, also known as The Afishonado. 'He has a little black book of fishers that he knows do it right,' says Cordelia chef Josh Norris, also of Don's. 'There's a list of 10 to 15 [fish on offer] he sends out each week.' Driven by what's available, the menu shapeshifts day to day – and isn't posted online. There are some constants, though. Always expect pasta, like a bouillabaisse-inspired Moreton Bay bug casarecce; a 'hectic, KFC-looking' fish burger (only served at lunch Wednesday and Thursday) akin to the fried-chicken sandwich at Don's; and a hibachi-grilled whole fish.
Sydney Morning Herald
07-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Hectic fish burgers and ‘Happy Meals': Don's team opens seafood diner on the north side
'The initial idea was a really good fish'n'chip shop, but we've come so far from that,' says Gavioli, who connected with Good Fish, a sustainability initiative by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, helping its community understand seafood more deeply. 'I couldn't believe some of the stats: how many different species of prawns we're not eating, all these fish that are [trendy] that we shouldn't be eating as much of,' he says. Seafood comes via Sydney-based supplier Andrew Joseph, also known as The Afishonado. 'He has a little black book of fishers that he knows do it right,' says Cordelia chef Josh Norris, also of Don's. 'There's a list of 10 to 15 [fish on offer] he sends out each week.' Driven by what's available, the menu shapeshifts day to day – and isn't posted online. There are some constants, though. Always expect pasta, like a bouillabaisse-inspired Moreton Bay bug casarecce; a 'hectic, KFC-looking' fish burger (only served at lunch Wednesday and Thursday) akin to the fried-chicken sandwich at Don's; and a hibachi-grilled whole fish.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Plastics campaigners warn Australia's pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home'
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia's promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas. The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters. But on plastics, campaigners warned that Australia's drive for an international treaty needed to be matched with ambition domestically. In 2022, Australia joined a 'high ambition coalition' to push for a global treaty on plastics, but talks in December failed to produce the treaty. The treaty aims to cut the production and consumption of virgin plastics, phase out problematic plastics and introduce design rules to minimise environmental harm and make recycling and re-use easier. Cip Hamilton, the plastics campaign manager at Australian Marine Conservation Society, said attention on the treaty would now focus on talks in Geneva in August, when she would travel with Indigenous rangers from north-east Arnhem Land. That community in Australia's Northern Territory was being inundated by so-called ghost nets – discarded or lost industrial fishing gear – and other plastics washing up onshore, Hamilton said. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter 'There is about 250kg of plastic leaking into our environment every minute. Once it gets into the environment, it's almost impossible to get it out and it's causing devastation to our wildlife,' she said. 'We need to be enacting domestic solutions … Recycling alone won't end plastic pollution.' Jeff Angel, a leading plastics campaigner and director of the Boomerang Alliance, said Australia's desire for a global plastics treaty 'must also mean high ambition at home'. Australia had a substantial 'unfinished' agenda dealing with plastics, he said, with recycling and recovery rates stuck at just 12.5%. 'The vast majority of plastic polluting our coasts, waterways, public spaces, soil and air is generated domestically,' Angel said. While in Nice, Australia joined nine other countries, including France, the UK and Spain, in a new coalition to halt the extinction of sharks and rays. A federal government spokesperson said this would 'generate momentum for urgent, coordinated conservation efforts'. Watt told the conference Australia would expand its ocean area protected from fishing, drilling and mining to 30% by 2030. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The Albanese government also said it would bring in legislation before the end of the year to ratify a landmark global high seas treaty it signed in 2023, and had been two decades in the making. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said enough countries had committed to ratifying the treaty that it could come into force as early as January 2026. The treaty covers the 60% of the ocean that is beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country – about 90% of the ocean by volume. Prof Tim Stephens, an international law expert at the University of Sydney, said the treaty would probably be 'very widely ratified' around the world. 'The high seas has remained an ungoverned area,' Stephens said. 'Australia has been an incredibly strong supporter of this treaty process that at several points could have fallen over. 'The high seas is an area where states have freedoms, like navigation, research and fishing, but that also means they haven't been adequately managed and protected.' The treaty – an agreement under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea – would allow for countries to nominate areas of the high seas for protection and would regulate access to marine genetic resources (which, for example, could be used in research or to develop new technologies). Stephens said the treaty would require signatories, including Australia, to assess any impacts that new activities in domestic waters, such as major fossil fuel projects, could have on the high seas. This would reinforce that members of the UN convention had obligations to protect the marine environment, he said. This would mean countries could be held to account under the treaty for protecting the high seas 'in a way we have not seen before', he added.
West Australian
10-06-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Australia dives into the big blue as key climate ally
Australia has joined seven other nations pledging to harness the power of the ocean to cut emissions under the global climate pact. Capable of absorbing carbon dioxide and much of the excess heat caused by more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the sea is considered crucial in the fight against climate change. Brazil and France have used the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice as a launch pad for the "Blue NDC Challenge", a commitment to embedding ocean solutions into climate goals. Under the Paris Agreement, nation states must refresh their plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions every five years. September has been marked as the hard cut-off for nationally determined contributions for 2035 ahead of November's COP30 in Brazil, with Australia - like most of its peers - missing an earlier deadline. Environment Minister Murray Watt highlighted "significant" blue solutions to climate change, including conserving and restoring marine habitat. "We acknowledge the links being drawn between the Paris agreement and the ocean program this year, as we approach a decade of the Paris agreement," he said. Australia has joined the two instigating nations, Brazil and France, as well as Fiji, Kenya, Mexico, Palau, and the Republic of Seychelles as early movers. The voluntary challenge invites countries to consider marine avenues for climate regulation, such as conserving and restoring mangrove forests and seagrass meadows. It further calls for the expansion of ocean energy, including offshore wind, and phasing out offshore oil and gas industries. Australian Marine Conservation Society fossil fuels campaign manager Louise Morris welcomed Australia's commitment at the conference, but questioned its credibility after extending the life of the North West Shelf gas project. "Signing the Blue NDC sends an important signal - but unless it's backed by action, including a clear plan to phase out offshore oil and gas, it risks being just another PR commitment without teeth," Ms Morris said. Progress on the high seas treaty has also been logged at the third UN Ocean Conference, hosted by France and Costa Rica. French President Emmanuel Macron expects the 60 necessary ratifications to come through in time for the treaty to come into force by January 2026, Reuters has reported. The agreement will allow nations to set up marine parks in international waters. The Labor government has pledged to ratify the treaty as a priority in its second term. Other commitments from Senator Watt on his first overseas venture as environment minister include better protecting Australian marine biodiversity. He is aiming for 30 per cent of the nation's waters to be "highly protected areas" by 2030. As much as 44 per cent of Australian waters are classified as marine parks, but not all those zones are fully protected from fishing and industrial activity.
