CANBERRA: Australia will more than double an area of the Coral Sea subject to special curbs on shipping in a bid to protect the environmentally sensitive region, the federal government said on Saturday.
The decision to include large parts of the Coral Sea in the area will expand it by 140%, or 565,000 square km , infrastructure minister Warren Truss said in a statement.
The expansion of shipping curbs comes as international concern is growing over the adjacent Great Barrier Reef, with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) considering putting it on its list of world heritage sites that are “in danger”.
The Coral Sea is one of the world’s most distinctive and undisturbed marine ecosystems,” Truss said. “It behoves us to do all we can to reasonably and responsibly protect one of our greatest natural resources.”
“Our new measures enhance protection for the Coral Sea – as well as the adjacent Great Barrier Reef world heritage area – by helping ships traverse the region safely and avoid potentially hazardous areas.”
Proposals put forward by Australia last year were accepted by the International Maritime Organisation at a meeting in London overnight, Truss said. The changes should gradually come into force once associated measures are adopted.
Busy shipping lanes pass through the area and commercial ships are required to hire a special “reef pilot” to navigate through it.
Truss said the changes would ultimately involve a new “area to be avoided” and two-way shipping lanes to keep ships away from reefs, sandbars and shoals.
In 2010 a Chinese coal carrier ran aground in the Great Barrier Reef, provoking an international outcry.
