Welcome to Harbour Reflections - a series of local stories about what the Gladstone Harbour represents to different members of our community and how they use or interact with it.
As a major port, a bustling hub for commercial fishing and recreational boating and one of
the highest boat ownership rates per capita in Australia, Gladstone Harbour and our
surrounding waterways are teeming with boating activity. Yet its proximity to the Great
Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, also brings unique challenges, as the
balance between human activity and environmental preservation becomes critical. Behind
the scenes, numerous individuals working to ensure that the reef remains accessible for all
stakeholders—whether commercial, research, tourism, or recreational—while safeguarding
its future.
One such individual is Owen Witt, the Assistant Director of Compliance Surveillance for the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is a Commonwealth government agency, is
responsible for both managing and protecting the Reef. As part of the Reef Joint Field
Management Program – which is delivered in partnership by the Reef Authority and
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service – Owen’s job is to oversee how the Great Barrier
Reef’s Marine Park is accessed and used, ensuring that visitors and operators comply with
the rules set out in the reef’s Zoning Plan.
This plan, which categorises all waterways within the Marine Park into one of eight zones,
define what activities can be undertaken in which locations to protect the animals and
organisms that call the reef home. Owen explains that, of these, the most common marine
protected area in the Gladstone Region is the Green Zone, which are areas that are denoted
as Marine National Park.
“In a Green Zone, you’re not allowed to do anything extractive so no spearfishing, no
fishing… you can’t even say ‘I’m sampling’. You can, however, snorkel, dive, visit and pass
through it.”
The other two zones that form the bulk of the marine protected area under Owen’s care are
the Pink and Orange Zones, which impose even stricter rules.
“In these zones, you can’t go into them at all. Recreational and commercial access is entirely
restricted to allow the coral and marine life to thrive undisturbed.”
While surveillance and patrolling of these waters are integral to Owen's role, he emphasises that enforcement is only one part of the job.
“It’s just as much about educating people on why the zoning exists,” Owen says. “We’re not just here to catch people doing the wrong thing—we want to help them understand the importance of these protections for the future of the Reef.”
Owen helps to facilitate the Reef Authority’s reef surveillance program, which combines
vessel surveillance, aerial surveillance with helicopters and newer technologies like drones
to patrol protected zones and ensure people are doing the right thing by the reef.
“Our aerial surveillance activities help us catch higher end offenders who are poaching or
targeting green zones on purpose but often, the people we speak to are just people who are fishing in the wrong area and don’t realise it. So, we make sure we’re educating them about
the reef, why protecting it is important and explain why complying with the zoning plan
benefits all of us in the long run,” Owen continues.
When it comes to knowing the Zoning Rules and what part of the Marine Park you’re in,
hard copies of the Gladstone Region Zoning Map are available at local tackle shops and
tourist information centres. Owen also encourages boaties to download the free ‘Eye on the
Reef’ app, for a digital resource that you can use out on the water.
“With the app you can plan your trip beforehand or check it when you’re actually out in the
boat before you go fishing to make sure you’re in the right zone or not interpreting a paper
map wrong,” says Owen. “It gives you the confidence to know that you can fish in the right
area.”
Having the app also ensures that you remain informed of any zoning changes and avoid
common misconceptions. A key example of this is Wistari Reef, which Owen says many
people make the mistake of spearfishing in.
"Wistari Reef is a half green zone, half yellow zone with cross-hatching through it, which is a special management area, meaning it is protected and no spearfishing is allowed at all,
whereas other yellow zones in the region you can spearfish in," says Owen.
“Another common one is One Tree Island, which is an Orange Zone for scientific research.
The whole area is out of bounds not just the island, you can’t go through it all and we’ve
recently updated our maps to indicate that this is a no access zone.”
By promoting awareness and compliance, the Reef Authority and its field officers like Owen
play a crucial role in protecting one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the
planet.
“We’ve got such a unique and awesome icon right on our doorstop, but it is in trouble and
needs some help. That’s where we come in and the community can play a big role in helping
to protect the reef by doing the right thing, following the zoning plan, and using it in the
right way.”
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