The aim is to preserve the more than 2.3 million square kilometres that make up Australian territorial waters from 2014, as well as to promote the conservation of species such as whales, grey nurse sharks and whale sharks, dugongs and turtles.

Formally, Australia has already established what is already the largest marine reserve in the world, a decision that adds to the management plans that will begin to be applied from July 2014. Among the new protected areas are Perth Canyon or the Coral Sea.

Likewise, a compensation package has already been proposed to mitigate this preservation decision. Around 80 million euros will be delivered to the fishing sector by the middle of next year. Although the transit of ships is allowed in these protected areas, as well as recreational activities such as submarine diving, actions such as the extraction of hydrocarbons are prohibited, protection measures that comply with the agreement established at the X Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, in which it was established that 10% of the marine surface should be protected by 2020.