After a lengthy flight from Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef, we arrived in beautiful Tasmania. This was the final leg of ‘The Sea & Me’ filming trip and first up we were off to Mariah Island to investigate the health of the lobster population with Neville Barrett, a local marine scientist from the University of Tasmania.
One of the benefits of marine protected areas is the spillover of individuals outside of the sanctuary areas. One of the species that had exhibited significant spillover was the lobster and around Mariah Island fishers were catching large lobsters not far from these protected zones. So we jumped on the boat and head out across the bay to a site not far from the ranger station on the island. The water was cold, even with the two wetsuits I was wearing. Under the water it was like nowhere else I had dived. The water had a green tinge and thick green kelp blanketed the substrate. It wasn’t long before one of the researchers found what we were looking for, a lobster and it was huge!
Mariah Island Marine Reserve is a 1,500 hectare protected area and was created in 1991. It was designed to protect a representative range of the marine habitats found on the island and allows for fifty percent of the island to be open to fishing. The success of the sanctuary has resulted in heavily exploited species to be able to regenerate, whilst populations of sea urchin have being kept to natural levels due to the healthy populations of large lobsters. This contrasts to many of the surrounding areas where sea urchins dominate the benthic landscape.
We left Mariah Island and headed down to Port Arthur where met with Rob Pennicott. He is an ex-commercial fisherman, who is now running a very successful tourism business, utilising the success of the marine park to show off some of the underwater treasures to his guests.
Rob had created a business taking people out on adventure boat trips around the stunning coast of Tasmania. The rugged cliffs of Tasmania make for an amazing scenic trip and on one of his trips, the guide will even dive in and collect abalone and sea urchin for lunch. The success of the sanctuaries allows for the sustainable collection of these species not far from the protected areas, which Rob has been able to capitalise on as part of his business.
'The Sea & Me' filming trip took us all over Australia. It allowed us to understand and see for ourselves first hand the benefits of marine protection. We met with leading scientists who we had been fortunately able to interview and share their knowledge on the benefits of marine protected areas and create a compelling film to educate the public on why marine protected areas are so important. It was such a wonderful opportunity and it would set us on the course we find us on today, creating the feature film, The Map to Paradise, that explores the birth and history of the marine protected area movement around the world.
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