Marine Parks as A Component in Remote Island Management and Conservation: The Examples of Australia’s Sub-Antarctic Territories (The Heard Island and Macquarie Island Groups)

Increasing emphasis is being placed internationally on the management and conservation of the biological resources of the oceans. In the case of remote islands, because of the often-intimate ecological connections between the biological resources of the terrestrial environment, and those of the surrounding ocean it is important that the management of the two be considered together. This is particularly important in the case of sub-Antarctic islands, which constitute breeding stations for vast quantities of wildlife, particularly seals, penguins and other seabirds. Thus, a myriad of food-chains leads from the surrounding ocean towards the land. Despite devasting despoliation, particularly though unregulated sealing from about 1820 until the middle years of the twentieth century, and the effects of the introduction of exotic organisms (such as cats and rabbits) until more recently, some of these islands still represent relatively pristine environments of great scientific and conservation significance. This paper compares efforts to combine the management of the ocean resources with those of the delicate island ecosystems, particularly through the development of marine parks, on two of Australia’s sub-Antarctic archipelagos - the Heard and Macdonald Islands group in the southern Indian Ocean, and Macquarie Island, south of New Zealand. The two archipelagos have very different legal and sovereignty histories. The terrestrial conservation arrangements of Macquarie Island developed from those of the State of Tasmania, while those of the Heard Island group have, since its transfer from United Kingdom sovereignty, been an Australian Commonwealth (i.e., Federal) responsibility. The legal arrangements for the conservation of the marine area (outside the contiguous zone) are the domain of the Commonwealth, which has expanded its protection of the resources of the oceans surrounding both remote territories through the development of marine parks in the years since 2000. While monitoring of the marine parks around Macquarie is not too difficult – partly as the result of the island having a permanent scientific base - that of the region around Heard Island, which has no permanent population, is more problematic