Bid to protect home of sea creatures great and small

Ari Sharp, The Age 7 Jan 10;

A PRISTINE stretch of West Australian coast is being put forward as the country's 18th World Heritage site after a deal between the state and federal governments was struck to protect the Ningaloo Coast.

A virtually untouched barrier reef stretching 260 kilometres off North-West Cape, Ningaloo is home to the largest fish in the world - the whale shark - as well as manta rays, sea snakes, whales, turtles, more than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 varieties of coral.

More than 700,000 hectares of the oceanic wilderness will get special protection if the United Nations agrees to the World Heritage listing, which follows a campaign lasting most of the past decade.

The area has become a cause célèbre among many West Australians, including novelist Tim Winton, who became a leading advocate of its heritage value.

The heritage nomination was announced yesterday by Federal Heritage Minister Peter Garrett and WA Environment Minister Donna Faragher, and came after the State Government relaxed its resistance to the move.

''The Ningaloo Coast tells an extraordinary story of biogeography, climate change, the assembling of continents and the opening of oceans, biological richness and environmental conservation,'' Mr Garrett said.

''The World Heritage nomination reflects that Ningaloo is internationally significant for its role in the protection of an exceptional number of marine and terrestrial species.''

But the heritage listing could affect tourism in the region, which has grown as a destination for snorkellers and divers.

''A heritage listing means more paperwork, more red tape and nothing to show for it,'' said Peter McKissock, whose company Ningaloo Blue each year takes hundreds of tourists, mostly from Australia and Europe, to snorkel on the remote reef.

''I can't understand why we need to give away control to foreigners,'' he said.

Nearby Shark Bay has already been put on the world heritage list, a move Mr McKissock said had affected coastal property sales and tourism.

The nomination is for an area of 708,000 hectares that includes Cape Range on Exmouth Peninsula, a coastal strip extending about 260 kilometres south to Red Bluff, as well as adjacent dunefields, marine areas, reefs and islands.

The UN's World Heritage Committee will now assess whether it meets the test of ''outstanding universal value'' in order to join the 890 sites already on the list.

The listing of a site requires the national government to manage the sites to protect the heritage value, which can include protecting species and limiting the impact of human activity.

If the nomination is successful, Ningaloo will become the 18th Australian site on the list, joining areas such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian Wilderness and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Ningaloo has also been added to the National Heritage list, making it the 89th site to be included.