What can I do in a sanctuary zone?

About 25% of the South Coast Marine Park will be dedicated sanctuary zones, designed to protect and preserve marine life while allowing a range of compatible uses.

You can think of a sanctuary zone as a ‘look, but don’t take’ area — where species can safely recover away from fishing, catching, collecting or other intrusive uses like mining, drilling and extractive industries.

These zones are known to be incredibly important to protecting and preserving marine species, and in most Australian marine parks, sanctuary zones quickly become popular places to see and experience nature.

In a sanctuary zone you can go:

  • Swimming or snorkelling

  • Scuba diving with abundant marine wildlife

  • Boating, including on whale watching or sea lion viewing tours

  • Kayaking, surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, wind surfing and kite surfing.

You can also do all the recreational activities on shore where they are currently permitted, including walking on the beach, camping, lighting camp fires, and enjoying nature. 

The sanctuary zones in the South Coast Marine Park target the most ecologically important habitats such as:  

  • coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves, rocky shores and sandy sea floors used for breeding and calving, nursery areas for rock lobsters and schooling areas for fish 

  • areas close to shore or alongside islands where seabirds, turtles, sea lions and penguins go ashore to breed 

  • both vulnerable sites and some relatively undisturbed marine environments, which scientists can compare marine health to adjacent areas where activities like fishing are allowed. 

Only 25% of the South Coast Marine Park will be in no-take zones, leaving 75% of the 1000km stretch of coast available for commercial and recreational fishing.  

What about the environment?

As climate change impacts our oceans, having sanctuary sites becomes more important. Higher water temperatures mean many fish species are decreasing in size and have fewer eggs.  

But Australian studies of sanctuary zones find fish grow 25% larger, and they have significantly more eggs than fish in non-sanctuary waters.  

DID YOU KNOW 

Fish in a marine protected area are on average 25% bigger than those outside the area?  

They also produce 3x the number of eggs, speeding species recovery.  

Australian researchers estimate 1 hectare of ocean in which fishing is not allowed produces at least 5x the amount of fish compared to an unprotected hectare.