Responsibility for establishing, planning and running the marine park rests with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, a Commonwealth Government agency.
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (a State Government agency) is responsible for the day-to-day management of the marine park - the field operations - or `wet end' of marine park management.
This involves public contact, environmental impact assessment, monitoring (e.g. effects of visitor activities), surveillance (by aircraft and patrol vessels), enforcement and education. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service is also responsible for managing island national parks and state marine parks.
The main tool used in managing the Great Barrier Reef is zoning. Each marine park zone has specific management objectives, which determine the human activities that may or may not take place in that zone and you must have a permit for certain activities. However, most zones allow a wide range of uses such as fishing and boating (over 95 percent of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is zoned for general use). Only in a few zones are certain activities prohibited.
However protection of the Reef is everyone's responsibility. When you visit Australia's Great Barrier Reef help Marine Park manager's keep the Great Barrier Reef a great place by listening and learning to your guide, generally it all comes back to good common sense, after all we want our children and their children and so to enjoy it for generations to come.
