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October 1, 1998 |
Ref 98/238 |
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Australia can bolster its economic development by stepping up inshore and offshore marine research programs, according to the Chief of CSIRO Marine Research, Dr Nan Bray.
"How well we develop and manage this immensely valuable resource may depend upon International Year of the Ocean initiatives such as Australia's Ocean Policy, which is expected to be released later in the year," Dr Bray said.
Addressing the opening session of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Hobart, Dr Bray said Oceans Policy needed to be backed with the funding required to make it operable.
"Equally as important is the need for policy management to be entrenched within an active portfolio where it will be a working document with enough clout to be effective," Dr Bray said.
Dr Bray said Australia has a vast marine territory. Under the United Nations Law of the Sea, Australia has the third largest marine territory in the world: more than twice the size of its land area."
"This provides Australia with huge economic potential because the world's oceans are already proving to be great wealth generators.
"Between 1987 and 1994, Australia's marine industries had an annual growth rate of eight per cent. That's two to three times faster than the general rate of economic growth.
"In 1994 our marine industries had an estimated value
of $16 billion. Today they are estimated at $52 billion and even
conservative projections will see this reach $120 billion by
the year 2020.
"In terms of climbing economic value, business growth and
job creation, no other sector shows this kind of strength,"
said Dr Bray.
She referred to the Australian Marine Industries and Science Council 1997 report, which stated: "Marine areas are seen by many as one of the last relatively unexplored resources and frontiers for industry development. Consequently, countries which develop leading edge marine industries or technologies have the potential to supply a very wide international demand".
Dr Bray said the marine operating environment is both hostile and sensitive. Marine industries develop through improved knowledge of the resource, through technical innovation and development, through better knowledge of the operating environment.
"The oceans are virtually untapped resources. Today we stand before these oceans as our ancient ancestors once stood before the land, as mere hunter gatherers, only beginning to understand the power to be released by the secrets of farming, husbandry, harvesting and mining within a vital new resource. Research is vital to this process.
"Yet of our extensive and valuable ocean territories less than five per cent has even been mapped," said Dr Bray.
CSIRO Marine Research has developed techniques that allow the habitat mapping of 5,000 square kilometres a week. "If we had a ship engaged full time on that task, it would still take us 110 years to map our ocean territory. But we don't have a ship engaged full-time, or anything like full-time, on mapping our ocean. Our current levels of marine research are not sufficient to allow us this".
"More importantly, we do not have the data to develop this resource sustainably. Development of the marine resources is not going to wait one hundred years for science to gather the information needed to ensure sustainable development. The prize is too rich for that kind of patience to be a realistic expectation. Without the knowledge to develop marine resources sustainably, we will see the resource damaged, just as our land-based resources were.
"In sixty years we will need to start an Oceancare program to pour billions of dollars a year into fixing our mistakes, just as the Landcare program does now. And this time we won't have the excuse of saying we didn't know better," said Dr Bray.
More information:
Dr Nan Bray 03-62325214
(Australia's largest scientific research organisation)
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