1. Already 48% Australian Waters are Commonwealth Marine Park
2.DPIRD already manages sustainability of fisheries and habitats
3. Indigenous people can continue their culture without needing a marine park.
4. Marine Parks are not about the environment, they are about control and money – Once established, the Indigenous Corporation in charge of the park can simply make deals with multinationals to use the Marine Park for industry, like the Buccaneer Marine Park where the Indigenous Corporation is considering a deal to allow fish farms in the Marine Park!
5. Once a marine park is established, DBCA can restrict access to areas without public consultation using Regulation 5. This is the exact method that was used to close the Horizontal Falls to the general public.
7. Placement of this park is based on limited scientific evidence and reasoning. It needs to be evidence based.
8. Sanctuary zones have been placed arbitrarily and are not evidence based.
9. Senior representative from DBCA, Peter Sharp, at the initial marine park meeting, at the Esperance shire, said that it was his job to get the targeted 5 million ha of park, and that is what he will do, and if he can’t put it here he’ll put it somewhere else. Essentially there was never the need for a park or the science to back it up. But the “promise” of an area by a date. The slogan is on the front page of the management plans “5 million hectares in 5 years”.
10. The majority of people living in the affected areas do not want this new marine park.
11. Professional Fishermen will go out of business.
12. Recreational Fishermen will be locked out of their favourite fishing locations unfairly
13. People use fishing on beaches to maintain their mental health
14. Sealions are already protected my exclusion zones
15. Seabirds are already protected p. 30 Marine Protected Species Identification Guide
16. The weather and ocean conditions in the proposed area naturally prevent fishermen from going out anyway
17. Whales are already protected p. 5 Marine Protected Species Identification Guide
18. Leafy Seadragons are already a Protected Species p. 18 Marine Protected Species Identification Guide