The New South Wales (NSW) State Government in Australia has finally lifted the fishing amnesty on most coastal marine sanctuaries. For nearly 2 years, coastal marine sanctuaries in NSW have been open to recreational fishing leaving our precious marine life unprotected.

But, the NSW Government finally announced that they are revoking the amnesty and reinstating sanctuary protections in 20 out of the 30 marine sanctuaries. Fishing will continue to be allowed in 10 marine sanctuaries whilst the Government conducts a public consultation review in these areas. Whilst this is not all we had hoped for, it is a fantastic positive step in the right direction, restoring the protection our marine life deserves.

The decision has come after almost 2 years of campaigning from when the amnesty was originally declared back in March 2013. Since then, fishing has been allowed to take place in coastal marine sanctuaries despite less than 4% of the NSW coastline being protected in the first place.

Dive store owners across NSW united on the issue, signing onto a joint statement that highlighted the concerns for their businesses following the State Government’s action to open fully-protected sanctuary areas to fishing.

“The support from the diving industry has been outstanding and their dedicated participation in the campaign has been pivotal in gaining a positive outcome” said Hannah Pragnell-Raasch, Project AWARE.

Project AWARE has joined thousands of others over the previous 21 months to attend meetings with Members of Parliament and other key decision makers as well as send countless letters and emails - all with the shared call to action for the Government to reinstate the marine santuray protections our ocean planet requires.

Whilst further action still needs to be taken to fully regain protections in all NSW sanctuaries, this marks a positive move in the right direction and we hold hope for more successes for marine conservation in 2015! Thank you to every one that helped make this possible.