Marine Environment Report

This report examines the state of the marine environment in Australia, detailing current conditions, pressures, risks, and recommendations for conservation. It highlights the economic significance of marine resources and the impact of human activities, including climate change and pollution. The report emphasizes the importance of effective management and legislative measures to protect marine biodiversity and ensure sustainable use of ocean resources.

State of our Environment
(SoE) based Report
MARINE ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT
Marine environment is characterised as a number of different scales, ranging from ocean
level processes through to those that occur at species and generic level. Half of the world
population is living within the coastal zone and industries of oceans are contributing more than
$500 billion to the economy of world. In Australia, it was recoded that there are more than, 4000
species of fish and 10,000 of species of invertebrates, microorganism and plans are there. Across
the world, there are many species of Australia that are scattered in the world and some countries
use the water of Australia for extensive movements or migration. There are so many things that
are exerting a great pressure on marine environment like dumped waste, herbicides, toxic waste,
marine debris, vessel activity of marine, anthropogenic noise, renewable energy generation of
marine, old and gas exploration of marine, usage of resource, recreational and commercial
fishing, change in climate, system and climate variability and other additional pressure. The
pressure belongs to marine mining and dumping of waste has very deep impact on marine
environment. But due to some legislation and laws, it comes at the stable range but still it is not
vanished. Australian government has strictly announced, dumping of waste in marine water and
marine mining is prohibited. It was expected that by 2025, it will be purely vanished.
Management might be absent or only partially effectual, there may be some impact that are very
challenging to debar and mitigate as well as some effects might be unknown. This is known as
residual risk. Marine debris and climate changes are those risk which are connected with residual
risk Apart from that, commercial fishing has great impact on habitats. Government has
implemented various mechanisms to protect marine environment of Australia from depletion.
These mechanisms or act or legislations that was passed by government are very effective as it
has been identified by the revenue that is obtaining from marine water like commercial fishing.
The act which was passed by government of cited country which is Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is very effective and efficient.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................1
2.0 The CURRENT CONDITIONS OF MARINE ENVIRONMENT...........................................1
3.0 PRESSURE AFFECTING MARINE ENVIRONMENT .........................................................2
4.0 TYPES OF RISK FACED BY MARINE ENVIRONMENT...................................................5
5.0 MARINE ENVIRONMENT HEADED TO..............................................................................8
6.0 BROADER MECHANISMS SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATION............................9
7.0 EFFECTIVENESS OF MECHANISMS.................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Pressures affecting Marine Environment of Australia .............................................4

INDEX OF TABLES
Table А: Assessment on impact of Pressure....................................................................................5
Table Б: Controllable risk................................................................................................................6
Table В: Uncontrollable risk............................................................................................................7

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Marine environment is characterised as a number of different scales, ranging from ocean
level processes through to those that occur at species and generic level. Half of the world
population is living within the coastal zone and industries of oceans are contributing more than
$500 billion to the economy of world. The marine environment of cited country is a part of the
Indian Ocean (Dang and Lovell, 2016). The marine environment of Australia is the world
largest third marine territory, approx. 13.86 million square. The work of the Marine Environment
Divisions is the directed by the Marine Environment Protection Committee. In this present
report, the current conditions of Marine environment of Australia will be discuss. Moreover, this
assignment will identify the key pressure affecting the marine environment of Australia.
Furthermore, there are various risk involved in maintaining marine environment will be written
as well as protection to control the risk will also be included in this report. Moreover, this report
will also discuss the solutions, recommendation to protect as well as to improve the marine
environment of Australia.
2.0 The CURRENT CONDITIONS OF MARINE ENVIRONMENT
The current condition of marine environment in Australia is good and effective but with
the passage of time they are depleted, thus, effective and efficient management is required to
take more advantages that it includes sustainable usage of environment, conservations as well as
living resources. The marine environment of Australia is the world largest third marine territory
as it is at 13.86 million square. It is home to a diverse array of marine species, including marine
reptiles and mammals. In Australia, it was recoded that there are more than, 4000 species of fish
and 10,000 of species of invertebrates, microorganism and plants are there. Across the world,
there are many species of Australia that are scattered in the world and some countries use the
water of Australia for extensive movements or migration. (Cordier and et.al., 2017). 85 percent
of population of Australia live within 100 kilometres of ocean and the ocean of country
contribute to the lifestyle of many people of nation. Ocean is the most essential part of the
country as it contributes to growth and development for nations economy. With the increasing of
blue economy, it is expected that the contribution of growth and development will also rise. A
blue economy is very important as it brings social and economic advantages that are equitable,
efficient as well as sustainable. Australian ocean species has appreciable support to aquaculture
1

and fisheries which was $2.5 billion sin 2013-14. Addition to this, it is expected that by 2025, the
marine sector of Australia will contribute around $100 billion to the economy every year. On the
other hand, the economy of country also has the biggest support by marine tourism. There are
some important factors of ecosystem like carbon dioxide, nutrient cycling, coastal protection and
absorption which are $25 billion and are provided by Australian oceans and coastal. Effective
management is required to take more advantages that includes sustainable usage of environment,
conservations as well as living resources. The main purpose of managing and controlling marine
environment is not an easy task as it is very complex and tough. There are three main bodies who
have responsibility or authority to manage which are state, northern territory and government of
Australia. There are many industries which are benefiting like commercial fisheries, government
of northern territory, oil and gas, recreational and commercial vessels activities, ingenious
activity and defence operation having great support from the north marine region (Rashad and
et.al., 2015).
The marine environment in the 5 years (2011-16) experienced various climate utmost that
includes one of the powerful La Nina events on record in 2010-2012 and the powerful EL Nino
event since 1998 in 2015-16. In the first event of 2010, stated that variations in temperature of
ocean are connected with climate change that resulted in heatwave in marine of the coastal area
of Australia in 2011. It not good that temperature of ocean is heat up as it led to far-flung
bleaching of corals, kelp forest is lost, death of fishes and invertebrate, impact on food chains
and many other causes. On the other hand, the El Nino event overlying on rising baseline of the
temperature of ocean that is connected with climate changes. By this the temperature of surface
of sea is at the highest point. The uttermost temperature cause bleaching and die-off of corals
which is not good for marine of Australia. Further, it also caused a marine heatwave off the east
coast of Tasmania from December 2015 to May 2016. The outcome of which are yet to be
ascertained (Athira and et.al., 2018). Thus, the government of Australia has taken several
measures to solve these issues like they formulated a policy to manage fishes and other species
of country in 2012, in 2015-16, they developed a policy and inquiry into the threat of marine
plastic pollution.
2

3.0 PRESSURE AFFECTING MARINE ENVIRONMENT
There is various pressure exert on the environment of Marine of Australia from wide
range of sources. There are so many things that are exerting a great pressure on marine
environment like dumped waste, herbicides, toxic waste, marine debris, vessel activity of marine,
anthropogenic noise, renewable energy generation of marine, old and gas exploration of marine,
usage of resource, recreational and commercial fishing, change in climate, system and climate
variability and other additional pressure. These are all the pressures that marine environment of
Australia faces and it affects habits, species, communities and functioning of ecosystem. There is
a framework that help marine in planning as well as decision making under the act of EPBC.
There are many types of pressures that exerting pressure on marine environment but it is not
possible that each should be addressed individually (Otieno, Beushausen and Alexander, 2016).
It also very challenging to predict the individual impact as well as what will be cumulative
impact on environment. Climate change in one the biggest pressure that is continuously affecting
the marine environment as well as it also reducing the greenhouse gas. Another than that the
temperature of sea surfaces is rapidly and regularly increasing that is causing serious damage to
the marine environment. It has been seen that if the temperature of water increases as water
become hot that shifted some species towards the poles. Addition to this, changes in environment
is also caused by changes in supply of nutrients as well as oxygen is also dissolved. Even so, it is
not possible to identify whether changes are occurring.
Within the waters of Australia, the pressure of footprint is related with commercial
fishing was also depreciating in last ten years (Pressures affecting Marine Environment of
Australia, 2015). In recreational fishing the pressure is generally stable, however, commercial
catches are less than recreational catches and this balance is increasing day by day for some
species of Australia. On the other hand, the pressure belongs to marine mining and dumping of
waste has very deep impact on marine environment. But due to some legislation and laws, it
comes at the stable range but still it is not vanished. Australian government has strictly
announced, dumping of waste in marine water and marine mining is prohibited. It was expected
that by 2025, it will be purely vanished. Apart from this, recreational and commercial vessel is
regularly increasing which are also exerting pressure on the marine environment (Taubert and
et.al., 2015). There are various types of risk involved in these vessel activities which are
increasing rapidly like anchor scour, noise and ship strike. Australian government and northern
3

territory both the bodies taking serious measures to control all these activities so that marine
environment will become healthy.
Furthermore, plastic production and its use is also causing serious damage to marine
environment and it is putting excessive pressure on the environment. The plastic production is
not only increasing but it is also increasing marine debris. It is not healthy for species as it has
long termed impact on marine environment.
Here is table presentation of pressures, its impact and its recent trends.
Table 1: Assessment on impact of Pressure
Pressure High/Low/Moderate
impact on Marine Environment
Improving/Deteriorating/
Stable/Unclear
(Recent Trends)
Recreational Fishing Very high impact Unclear
Traditional usage of marine
resources
High Impact Deteriorating
Oil and gas exploration and
production
Low Impact Improving
Marine and Mining Not Assessed -
Marine renewal energy
generation
Very low impact Not clear
Marine Vessel activities Low impact Unclear
Anthropogenic noise High impact Unclear
Marine Debris High impact Deteriorating
Toxin, Pesticides and
herbicides
Low impact Unclear
Dumped waste Low impact Deteriorating
4

4.0 TYPES OF RISK FACED BY MARINE ENVIRONMENT
Risk is defined as chances or threat of damage, injury, liability and loss or any other
negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal danger. There are various types of risk
involved in marine environment like threat of climate changes, residual risk and many other risk
involved. Risk are associated with pressure on the marine environment as discuss above. The
above pressure that are discussed are all parts of risk. It is of two types, one is which can be
controllable and estimated or second uncontrollable and un-estimated risk. Climate risk is
somewhat uncontrollable risk which cannot be controlled. Mitigation and avoidance measures
which are the fundamental strategies for managing effect of activities on the marine environment
may not address all the effects with the activities (Zinger, Boetius and Ramette, 2014).
Management might be absent or only partially effectual, there may be some impact that are very
challenging to debar and mitigate as well as some effects might be unknown. This is known as
residual risk. Marine debris and climate changes are those risk which are connected with residual
risk. Both the risk are very extensive as both are lacking in effective management. Apart from
that, commercial fishing has great impact on habitats. Marine debris is very serious risk as if
plastic production and use will not stop than it will kill all the species living in water. Plastic
makes poison in water that kill all the species (Arnosti and et.al., 2014). On the other hand,
industries are increasing with the rising globalisation which are causing serious damage to
marine environment like waste disposal.
Here is some controllable risk-
Table 2: Controllable risk
Basis Catastrophic Major Moderate Minor
Almost Certain Marine Debris
risk.
Commercial and
Recreational
species.
Fishing.
Oil and Gas.
Likely Marine Vessel
operational
activities.
Marine Vessel
5

ship strike
activities.
Marine Mining
and Industries.
Possible Fishing.
Marine vessel
Activities.
Unlikely Oil and Gas.
Here are some uncontrollable risks-
Table 3: Uncontrollable risk
Basis Catastrophic Major Moderate Minor
Almost Certain Climate risk
(Ocean
temperature)
Climate Change
risk.
Likely Extreme or severe
event
Possible
Unlikely Climate Change
risks
Disease outbreaks
6

These are all risk that Marine environment faces. There are some almost certain and controllable
risk and some almost certain uncontrollable risk. Some risk is likely to occur, some have
possibility of occurrence and some are unlikely to occur. The above table shows the difference
and bifurcate them in systematic manner (Zhang, Wallinder and Leygraf, 2014).
In order to control and minimize the effect of those risk, government of Australia and
Northern territory are taking effective measures to overcome those risk which are as follows-
 Government of Australia has banned the use and production of Plastic.
 Government also banned the disposal of waste to into Marine Water.
 Marine mining is also banned by government of Australia.
 Recycle properly.
 People should participate a beach or river clean-up.
 Government should organize clean-up programmes of river and ocean.
 Avoid using of those products that contain Micro-beads.
 Fever plastic products should be used.
 Do not buy those products that destroy the life of Marines.
 Influence changes in society.
 No marine species are removes is the action taken by Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Australia.
5.0 MARINE ENVIRONMENT HEADED TO.
No far a person lives, ocean affects each and every life. Marine environment is very
broad topic and Australian marine environment is very large as it covers more than 13.86 million
square kilometres. Oceans are lifeblood of planet as well as human kind. It has been identified
that there are so many problems and issues that marine environment of Australia is facing. Thus,
it is very important to conserve the depletion of marine environment of cited country. The marine
of Australia provides number of goods and services to society that includes moderation of
climate, waste and toxicants processing, provision of vital food, employment to many people as
well as medicines. The coast of Australia creates directly and indirectly wealth for country that
includes millions of jobs in sectors like fishing, tourism and aquaculture.
Marine biodiversity plays a vital role in ecosystem services (Scharin and et.al., 2016). They
contribute large amount of fund to economic development of country. In order to live healthy
7