The Great Southern Reef might not be as well-known as the Great Barrier Reef, but Australia's forgotten other 'Great Reef' is a vital natural resource with critical environmental, economic, and cultural significance.
What is the Great Southern Reef?
It's an interconnected underwater system fringing more than 8000km of Australia’s southern coast, extending from Kalbarri in WA, all the way around to the NSW-QLD border.
Kelp forests - which sequester more carbon than their terrestrial counterparts - are a defining feature of the Great Southern Reef, they underpin its biodiversity and the subsequent industries that depend on it.
The impact on local ecosystems and fisheries due to the loss of the Great Southern Reef’s kelp forests has been severe.
Tackling climate change is the single most important thing we can do to safeguard the Great Southern Reef, along with investing in awareness, research, restoration, and protection from marine invasive species.
To protect and promote the Great Southern Reef, the Greens will:
- Fund $20 million to prioritise a Recovery Plan for giant kelp
- Invest $40 million in establishing an Invasive Marine Species Unit within CSIRO to better tackle the spread of habitat destroying invasive urchins
- Campaign for and support golden kelp being listed as a threatened ecological community with a full recovery plan
- Appoint a Great Southern Reef Envoy in Canberra to promote the values of and threats to the Reef and the need for critical future funding support, working with coastal communities to assist with the impacts of climate change
- Implement seismic testing regulations to make industry pay for scientific research into its impacts on commercial fisheries and on the ecological and economic values of the Great Southern Reef areas