Marine and coastal issues

Australias coastal and marine environments are vital to its economic, recreational, and cultural wellbeing, yet manyindicators of marine ecosystem health are declining. Protecting coastal and marine biodiversity and resources againstthe stressors of coastal development, fishing, oil and gas development, pollution, invasive species and climate changeis critically important. Despite a range of policy commitments to integrated planning and management of marine resources and the coastalzone, current governance approaches are fragmented across various levels of government and sectoral regimes,including those for conservation, fishing, pollution control, biosecurity, and oil and gas and seabed mining.