• Complexity: Reserve focuses on ecosystem conservation, rather than single-species preservation.
• Adaptive Management: Management plan specifies that additional scientific studies are needed to increase understanding of the ecosystem, and adapt management actions for the future.

• “The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve is a truly wild and naturally dynamic area of the world. Spectacular geographical features and natural processes and ecosystems make it a uniquely inspiring place of immense value to current and future generations. This outstanding place will be accorded the utmost respect and protection and will be managed, on the basis of sound understanding, as a place where humans are thoughtful, responsible and privileged visitors.”

Lead Organization

• Australian Antarctic Division

Key Parties

Stakeholders

• Commercial fishermen
• Industry representatives

NGOs

• WWF-Australia

Management

The marine reserve at Heard Island and the McDonald Islands is managed by the Australian Antarctic Division of the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Stakeholders, including commercial fishermen, industry representatives and WWF-Australia have been consulted in the development of a management plan. The management plan also calls for continued discussions with the fishing industry relative to the use of gear and techniques to minimize bycatch in areas outside the reserve in which fishing is allowed.

Fishing Regulation

Fishing is regulated by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, in conjunction with national and international compacts, such as the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

Enforcement of regulations is conducted through cooperative relationships through fishermen, industry and other government agencies, including Australian customs and defense authorities, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

Australia assumed control of the island group from the United Kingdom in 1947 and enacted the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act of 1953 to establish legal jurisdiction over the territory.

In 1987, Australia enacted the Environment Protection and Management Ordinance (EPMO), which focused on the terrestrial area of the island group and the adjacent territorial sea, defined as the water extending from the shore to a point 12 miles offshore. The EPMO prohibited the introduction of foreign organisms, required a permit to enter the territory or territorial sea and required development of a management plan to protect the territory’s plants and animals.

In 1998, Australia’s Oceans Policy established development of marine reserves as government policy and identified the Heard Island and McDonald Islands area as a suitable candidate for inclusion into a network of marine reserves.

Legal authority for establishing the reserve was contained in a subsequent framework environmental protection law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. The act identified seven types of sites, including World Heritage sites, as being of national environmental significance. This island group had been listed as a World Heritage site since 1997.

In 2001, the Australian government announced an initial proposal to create a marine reserve near the Heard Island and McDonald Islands area. After an 18-month public comment period involving commercial fishermen and the Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, an amended reserve was announced. Eighty-five percent of the proposed area remained highly-protected in a marine reserve. The remaining 15 percent was reclassified as a conservation zone for evaluation and potential inclusion in the reserve in the future. Australian fishermen, concerned about the effect of illegal fishing, supported the marine reserve as the government indicated it would step up efforts to interdict illegal fishing.

The Ecosystem

Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are some of the most biologically pristine areas of the world because of the region’s harsh climate and extreme isolation. The islands are located 4,137 kilometers southwest from Perth, Australia, and roughly 1,630 kilometers north of Antarctica. The island group is the only major subantarctic island group believed to contain no species directly introduced by humans.

Since 1855, only approximately 240-shore based visits have been recorded on Heard Island. Only two known landings have occurred on the smaller McDonald Island.

The islands – the 368-square kilometer Heard Island and the 2.5-square kilometer McDonald Island group – contain active volcanoes and permanent glaciers. The marine ecosystem supports a range of corals, sponges, barnacles and echinoderms. It also serves as an important nursery for many species of fish and provides crucial breeding habitats for a range of birds and marine mammals, including a number of threatened species. Two species of birds, the Heard Island sheathbill and Heard Island cormorant, are endemic to the reserve area.

Threats

Human impacts currently are minimal and there is no resident population on the island. After the islands were discovered in 1853, seal hunting began and peaked between 1857 and 1859 as seals were hunted in great numbers. Since then, seal populations have recovered.

The 65,000 square kilometer Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve is managed as a strict nature reserve, primarily for scientific research and environmental monitoring, under the guidelines of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The reserve is divided into outer and inner zones. The following regulations apply in both zones:

• No activities deleterious or contrary to the purposes of the reserve;
• No mining or exploration for petroleum or minerals;
• No commercial fishing.

Inner Zone

The inner zone extends 12 nautical miles from the shoreline of the islands. A permit is required for entry. Additionally, ballast water may not be exchanged or discharged, and regulations prohibit the discharge of wastes from vessels in many cases.

Outer Zone

The outer zone is the portion of the marine reserve that extends beyond the limit of the inner zone. A portion of the outer zone extends to the limit of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. Unlike the inner zone, entry into the outer zone does not require a permit. Sewage and food scraps may be discharged from vessels under certain conditions. Discharging dirty ballast, tank washing water, and sludge from vessels, however, is prohibited.

Additionally, five types of zones were established on the terrestrial area of the lands to manage the mostly scientific and research visits to the island.

The management plan governing the marine reserve of Heard Island and McDonald Islands specifies that research and monitoring will inform future management actions when the plan is reviewed in seven years. Additionally, Australia is required to report on the ecosystem on a regular basis by the criteria governing inclusion in the World Heritage sites program.

Although scientific studies of the island group have been conducted since 1874, much of the basic baseline information about the ecosystem still needs to be developed to make comparisons, detect any changes in the ecosystem, and determine whether those changes are due to management interventions or human activities. The management plan recommends specific monitoring activities, such as:

• Tracking the number of vessels and people visiting the territory.
• Determining the impact of human activities.
• Recording the deaths of wildlife from collisions with vessels.
• Researching the condition of fish stocks and habitat.

While access to the territory and the removal or any animal or plant requires a permit, the management plan specifies the types of scientific research the Australian government intends to conduct and would facilitate from external partners. Government research is conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division, which intends to support summer research visits every three years. Prior to an expedition, a public workshop will be held to seek public interest to conduct research in the reserve.

• Establishment of legal protections that create a no-take reserve in portions of the Southern Ocean surrounding Heard Island and the McDonald Islands.
• Establishment of the ecosystem of Heard Island and McDonald Islands as places deserving of conservation through communications to the public, stakeholders, scientists and other government agencies.

Official Australian government Web site for Heard Island and McDonald Islands:

http://www.heardisland.aq/

Australian Antarctic Division:

http://www.aad.gov.au/