Australia to Create the World's Largest Marine Reserve

Australia says it will create the world’s largest network of marine parks. These reserves will cover 3.1 million square kilometers of ocean including the Coral Sea. There will be some restrictions placed on fishing and oil and gas exploration in the protected zone. Last year, the Australian government announced its plans to protect the marine life currently in the Coral Sea which has an area of nearly 1 million square kilometers. The sea off of the Queensland coast in the northeastern part of Australia is home of sharks, tuna, tropical reefs and deep sea canyons. I t holds three US navy ships sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942.

Benefits

Some benefits of having this area for the marine life is protection of some species. All around the world sharks are being caught by fisherman and getting their fins cut off in order for the fisherman to make money off of it. Taking away a sharks fins kill them resulting in a large decrease in shark population all around the world. Currently a lot of countries are banning shark fining and this is doing very well for them so far. This will also mean that there will be limited oil and gas exploration rather than companies just coming in whenever and searching for a new spot to possibly find oil. This will decrease the chance of having a devastating oil spill such as the United States saw during the BP oil spill. Also having limited fishing also keeps the numbers of fish even within the wild. In the wild there is a food chain and that needs to be in tact because if one species dies off or is caused to go extinct due to fishing, then that could mess up the whole entire ecosystem of the ocean life. Having this can also help prevent shark attacks in Australia. This can happen because the sharks wont have to be closer to shore to hunt for food, they can stay within the reserve and be able to live there.  

*Pictured above* These are all shark fins, lined up and ready to be made into various different things

Video

http://www.gansbaai.com/docs/9275/No-Shark-Fin.gif