Marine park mining fears

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THE local fishing industry may be satisfied with the proposed marine reserve off the Solitary Islands but environmental groups are not.

The fact that offshore mining has not been taken off the table is the main initial concern of the North Coast Environment Council.

Honorary secretary of the environment group John Jeayes said the Temperate East Marine Bioregion stretching across Commonwealth waters from the south coast to the Barrier Reef, including the Solitary Islands marine reserve, does little to protect the waterways from mining.

"I can see no protection until this plan is gazetted for protection against mining," Mr Jeayes said. "Exploration for mining can still go on out there."

Nine marine reserves are proposed within the Temperate East Marine Bioregion with the network that is being developed to have no impact in State waters.

The proposed networks of mar ine reserves are in Commonwealth waters which start 5.5 kilometres off the coast.

The North Coast Environment Council is in the process of submitting several concerns after seeing the draft plan for the management and conservation of the proposed marine reserves and discussing the finer details which were released on Monday.

Mr Jeayes said another concern on top of the mining issue is the possibility of gas pipelines running into the Pacific Ocean.

"Everywhere there's an uproar about the lack of protections on coal-seam gas but every now and then some gas company wants to put a pipeline out into the ocean," he said.

As revealed on the Advocate's website on Monday night, the Professional Fishermen's Association said that "the industry can live with" the proposal as it is.

Mr Jeayes said that he had expect that reaction considering the lack of marine protection offered in the draft plan.

"There's only a small area of total protection and the rest of it has some good protection against things like long-lining but it fails with the Federal waters at Solitary," he said.

"There's a gap there and they had an excellent chance for continuity.

"It's still early days but from a conservation point of view it looks inadequate."