CANBERRA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government will roll back high-level protections for marine areas to promote tourism and fishing industries under a proposal tabled on Wednesday.
Under the changes, announced by Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday before the policy documents were uploaded to the Federal Register of Legislation on Wednesday, 80 percent of Australia's marine park waters would be open to commercial fishing, up from 63 percent.
The area of the Coral Sea, which is adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, afforded the highest-level "green zone" protection, would be reduced from 50 percent to 24 percent.
Under the regulations, mining and fishing is banned in green zones.
Almost 70 percent of the Coral Sea will be given "yellow zone" protection instead, allowing for some mining and fishing above the seabed.
More than 95 percent of Australian water within 100 kilometers of the coast will be open to recreational fishing.
The changes, which would be implemented for a decade, retain 3.3 million square kilometers of protected offshore regions.
"Home to the second largest area (3.3 million square kilometres) of marine protected area in the world, Australia with 36 percent of its waters included in marine parks is well ahead of the international benchmark 'Aichi target' of 10 percent by 2020," Frydenberg said in a media release on Tuesday night.
"By being more targeted with restrictions and integrating marine park management with world-class fisheries management, we have not only increased conservation protection, but also ensured regional economies are supported."
Frydenberg said that the government had allocated 56 million Australian dollars (43 million U.S. dollars) to implement the sweeping changes with the process to begin in July.
Tony Burke, environment spokesman for the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), said that the government was undertaking "the largest removal of areas from conservation in history."
"It allows a pathway for trawlers and longliners to go all the way from north to south in the Coral Sea. That means we go from a highly protected area to an area where super trawlers can turn up," Burke told Fairfax Media.
