page_title: Australian marine parks
section_title: 2012 marine parks
hierarchical_section_title: Australian marine parks / History / 2012 marine parks
caption_attribution_description: English: National map of Commonwealth marine reserves. Reserves are managed by the federal government of Australia and are within the bounds of the Australian EEZ.
context_page_description: Australian marine parks are marine protected areas located within Australian waters and are managed by the Australian government. These waters generally extend from three nautical miles off the coast to the outer limit of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone at 200 nautical miles while marine protected areas located closer in-shore are the responsibility of the states or the Northern Territory.
context_section_description: In 2012, the Australian government under Labor/Kevin Rudd revealed plans to create the world's largest marine reserve network, made up of five main zones in offshore waters surrounding every state and territory. The number of marine reserves off the Australian coast would increase from 27 to 60 and would cover 3,100,000 km² (1,200,000 sq mi) of ocean including the entire Coral Sea.
  The plans were met with criticism by commercial and recreational fishers, for being too restrictive, and by environment groups for skirting areas of potential oil and gas prospectively, and that just a small amount of the total area completely off-limits fishing.
caption: Map of the Commonwealth marine reserves announced in 2012, showing the original scheduled zoning rules.
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