Department of Conservation and Land Management

Marine conservation overview and the relevance of oceanography

(see also the MARINE PARKS section of NATIONAL PARKS AND OTHER PLACES in www.calm.wa.gov.au)

The Department of Conservation and Land Management (DCLM) is the lead agency responsible for the conservation, through management, of the State's native marine flora and flora under the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 (covering marine conservation reserves) and the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 (covering all of Western Australia's State Coastal Waters). DCLM's core functions in relation to the management of the State's natural marine resources are expressed via the following major outputs:

· an effectively managed comprehensive, adequate and representative (CAR) system of marine protected areas;
· threatened species and communities recovery programs; and
· sustainable use of wildlife programs.

The Department's marine conservation programs are coordinated, at both strategic and tactical levels, by the Marine Conservation Branch (MCB) and implemented by MCB in collaboration with the Department's Regional and District offices and other specialist branches. The MCB is a specialist marine natural resource management group, with key Departmental roles in marine reserve creation, policy support, information management and management (which includes research and monitoring).

The interconnectivity of the State's coastal waters is a fundamental characteristic relevant to conservation of the State's marine biodiversity. Strategically, an appropriate understanding of the oceanography, at oceanic, shelf and embayment scales is of critical importance to understanding fundamental ecological processes. Tactically, an appreciation and predictive capability of the spreading and transport of threatening waterborne materials is required in order to assess and manage current and potential anthropogenically related impacts on the State's marine ecological and social values.

For its fundamental oceanographic research requirements the Department, through the MCB, relies principally on the research outputs of key State and Commonwealth oceanographic groups, such as the CSIRO, AIMS, CRC's, WAGOOS and universities. The Department's links with these groups are mainly strategic, with limited seed funding through MCB for under-graduate and post-graduate research and joint involvement in large-scale research funding initiatives being key mechanisms to facilitate and progress work in required oceanography.

In contrast, for its physical and biological monitoring requirements, the Department has an internalised model, with monitoring coordinated and conducted by the MCB in collaboration with the Department's Regional and District offices and other specialist branches.