Parks Australia, through the use of AFMA’s Vessel Monitoring System alert and messaging capability, provides a free alert service to Commonwealth commercial fishing operators advising them of their proximity to Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) boundaries.
Since 1 July 2014, all boats operating in and around the South East Commonwealth Marine Reserve network have had access to this service. As of 1 November 2014, this alert service has been rolled out to include all other actively managed marine reserve networks around Australia. These include reserves in:
- the Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve off the Queensland coast
- the Temperate East network, around Coffs Harbour in New South Wales
- the South-west network, around Port Lincoln in South Australia
- the North-west network around Ningaloo and Broome in Western Australia.
The alert service has been developed in close collaboration with industry and has been welcomed as a positive approach by Parks Australia to actively manage its marine estates in Commonwealth waters. The CMR alert service comes at no cost to industry and is available to all Commonwealth commercial fishers.
More information can be found on the Department of the Environment’s website.