The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, an area almost the size of Japan, has a new network of no-take areas that significantly improves the protection of biodiversity. The new marine park zoning implements, in a quantitative manner, many of the theoretical design principles discussed in the literature. For example, the new network of no-take areas has at least 20% protection per "bioregion," minimum levels of protection for all known habitats and special or unique features, and minimum sizes for no-take areas of at least 10 or 20 km across at the smallest diameter. Overall, more than 33% of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is now in no-take areas (previously 4.5%). The steps taken leading to this outcome were to clarify to the interested public why the existing level of protection was inadequate; detail the conservation objectives of establishing new notake areas; work with relevant and independent experts to define, and contribute to, the best scientific process to deliver on the objectives; describe the biodiversity (e.g., map bioregions); define operational principles needed to achieve the objectives; invite community input on all of the above; gather and layer the data gathered in round-table discussions; report the degree of achievement of principles for various options of no-take areas; and determine how to address negative impacts. Some of the key success factors in this case have global relevance and include focusing initial communication on the problem to be addressed; applying * email leannef@gbrmpa.gov.au the precautionary principle; using independent experts; facilitating input to decision making; conducting extensive and participatory consultation; having an existing marine park that encompassed much of the ecosystem; having legislative power under federal law; developing high-level support; ensuring agency priority and ownership; and being able to address the issue of displaced fishers.Key Words: biophysical operational principles, cultural operational principles, economic operational principles, reserve-design software, social operational principles Establecimiento deÁreas sin Captura Representativas en la Gran Barrera Arrecifal: Implementación a Gran Escala de la Teoría sobreÁreas Marinas Protegidas Resumen: El Parque Marino Gran Barrera Arrecifal, con una superficie casi del tamaño de Japón, tiene una red deáreas sin captura que incrementa la protección de la biodiversidad significativamente. La nueva zonificación en el parque marino implementa, de manera cuantitativa, muchos de los principios teóricos de diseño discutidos en la literatura. Por ejemplo, la nueva red deáreas sin captura tiene niveles mínimos de protección de por lo menos 20% de protección por "bioregión" en todos los hábitats y rasgos especiales oúnicos conocidos, y tamaños mínimos para lasáreas sin captura de por lo menos 10 o 20 km en el diámetro menor. En general, más de 33% del Parque Marino Gran Barrera Arrecifal está enáreas sin captura (4.5% anteriormente). Los pasos hacia este resultado fueron clarificar al público interesa...

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Marine turtle habitats were considered in the design of the new zoning network for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park as part of the Representative Areas Programme. One of the specific design guidelines developed was the incorporation of marine turtle inter-nesting and foraging habitats into the overall network of no-take areas. The guideline was refined further for individual nesting and foraging sites to incorporate all very high priority nesting sites and to incorporate 20% of each identified foraging site, respectively. Marine turtle inter-nesting habitat increased in no-take area protection from 781 km2 to 1 886 km2 (23.4% to 56.5% of all identified sites); marine turtle foraging habitat increased in no-take area protection from 3 063 km2 to 12 490 km2 (7.1% to 29.1% of all identified sites). Although the nesting and foraging principles were not achieved in total for all identified marine turtle sites, overall the level of protection afforded by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003 increased for nearly all marine turtle sites identified. Additionally, other activities (e.g. water quality, fisheries, traditional use of marine resources) occurring in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park that may impact upon marine turtles are being addressed via other mechanisms.

Existing marine bioregions covering the Pacific Ocean are conceptualised at spatial scales that are too broad for national marine spatial planning. Here, we developed the first combined oceanic and coastal marine bioregionalisation at national scales, delineating 262 deep-water and 103 reef-associated bioregions across the southwest Pacific. The deep-water bioregions were informed by thirty biophysical environmental variables. For reef-associated environments, records for 806 taxa at 7,369 sites were used to predict the probability of observing taxa based on environmental variables. Both deep-water and reef-associated bioregions were defined with cluster analysis applied to the environmental variables and predicted species observation probabilities, respectively to classify areas with high taxonomic similarity. Local experts further refined the delineation of the bioregions at national scales for four countries. This work provides marine bioregions that enable the design of ecologically representative national systems of marine protected areas within offshore and inshore environments in the Pacific.