Australia opens a new Heard Island and McDonald Islands management plan for comment

A draft management plan to replace the existing one published in 2005 for Australia's Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve (HIMI) in the southern Indian Ocean is now open for public comment (click here).

Heard and the McDonald Islands support populations of ACAP-listed seabirds including Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris and Light-mantled Sooty Phoebetria palpebrata Albatrosses and Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus.

“HIMI is one of the least anthropologically disturbed areas in the world and is Australia’s largest International Union for Conservation of Nature Strict Nature Reserve, which is the highest category of protected area recognised by the World Commission on Protected Areas.

The draft management plan has a strong focus on biosecurity and waste management and is the second plan prepared for the Reserve under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.”

Herad Island's central Big Ben with Mawson Peak, photograph by Barbara Wienecke

The reserve covers 71 200 km², including 6200 km² of marine waters added in March this year (click here).

When implemented, the new management plan will direct management of the reserve for 10 years.

Comments are due by 15 August 2014 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or mailed to:

HIMI Marine Reserve Management Plan Review

Australian Antarctic Division

203 Channel Highway

Kingston, Tasmania 7050, Australia.

For more information go to www.heardisland.aq.

Selected Literature:

Australian Antarctic Division 2005.  Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan.  Kingston: Australian Antarctic Division.  198 pp.

[Australian Antarctic Division] 2014.  Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve Management Plan July 2014.  [Kingston]: Australian Antarctic Division.  112 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 July 2014