Policy and management response

• Coastal management programs and projects, including The Living Coast Strategy, Coastcare, and Our Seas and Coasts: A Marine and Estuarine Strategy for South Australia.
• Coastal hazard policies and uniform planning principles.
• Assessment of landscape values along the coastline to inform planning and development.

• Adelaide's Living Beaches: A Strategy for 2005–2025.

• Establishment of marine parks – Marine Parks Act 2007, Marine Planning Framework and implementation of marine park management plans. 

• Introduction of science-based fisheries, including review of fisheries legislation and management plans to reflect sustainability principles.
• Fisheries Management Act 2007, providing establishment of aquatic reserves and seasonal or temporary closures.
• Measures to reduce fishing participation and effort, mainly through reduction in the number of marine scalefish fishery licences from 865 in 1984 to 316 in 2016, the fishing net buyback scheme and voluntary reduction of catch by Blacklip Abalone fishers.
• Research on bycatch reduction devices and monitoring of trends.
• The Aquaculture Act 2001 requiring aquaculture developments to undergo ecological risk assessments before approval.

• Aquifer storage and recovery to reduce runoff.
• Environment Protection (Water Quality) Policy 2003 – a statewide approach to protection of inland and marine water quality.
• Adelaide Coastal Waters Study to improve scientific certainty in managing Adelaide’s coastal waters—informed Catchment to Coast Program and Adelaide Coastal Water Quality Improvement Plan.
• EPA codes of practice to reduce marine pollution.
• Improved quality and reuse of wastewater.
• Increased capture and reuse of stormwater.

In 2015, many countries, including Australia, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda included 17 sustainable development goals with a number of targets relating to coast and marine environments. These aim to reduce pollution, achieve more sustainable fishing, increase areas under formal conservation, improve scientific knowledge and coordinate policy. 

It was noted in The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2017 that the formal protection of key biodiversity areas increased from 32% in 2000 to 45% in 2017, with the highest coverage in Australia and New Zealand at 69%.

In addition to leading the nation’s participation under international agreements, the Australian Government’s coast and marine role relates mainly to the marine environment beyond state jurisdictional coastal waters. This includes:

• managing 44 marine parks and the Great Barrier Reef
• marine bioregional planning
• marine pollution
• marine species conservation
• fisheries assessments under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
• state of the environment reporting
• cooperative research centres
• OceanWatch Australia – the natural resource management group for Australia’s marine environment with responsibility for delivering the Australian Government’s marine natural resource management related programs.

Key actions to protect the SA coast since the 2013 SOER are:

• Implementation of the Adelaide Coastal Water Quality Improvement Plan

The Adelaide Coastal Water Quality Improvement Plan (ACWQIP) is a long-term strategy to achieve and sustain water quality improvement for Adelaide’s coastal waters and create conditions to see the return of seagrass along the Adelaide coastline. Maintaining good water quality is essential for the maintenance of marine habitats and important for commercial and recreational uses of Adelaide's coastal waters and metropolitan beaches.

Central to the ACWQIP is the value of the coast, coastal waters and seagrass meadows for the ecosystem services they provide and the acknowledgement that activities occurring on the land impact on coastal water quality and the coastal environment. This has been the foundation of the recently completed 5-year Catchment to Coast project and the ongoing management of Adelaide’s coastal waters.

• Establishment of marine park sanctuary zones

The South Australian system of marine parks are implemented in line with 19 management plans. The marine parks network is made up of zones, including general use zones (13.6% of state waters), habitat protection zones (24.7% of state waters), sanctuary zones (4.9% of state waters), and restricted access zones (1% of state waters). Restrictions on activities in 83 sanctuary zones have been in place since 2014. 

• Completion of regional climate change adaptation plans

The Towards a Resilient State: The South Australian Government’s Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan includes 3 actions specific to the coast:

• Action 63 – undertake a periodic review of SA’s coastal management measures, including Adelaide’s beach management to provide protection of development and infrastructure and beach amenity from long-term sand loss, and storm flooding and erosion. This includes review of the implementation of the Adelaide's Living Beaches strategy, which currently costs close to $6 million a year. This is a strategy to operate and maintain sand-transfer infrastructure for sand carting to replenish eroding beaches at West Beach and Henley South, and dredging of sand and seagrass wrack at West Beach and Glenelg.
• Action 64 – prepare a 20-year strategic coastal management plan based on climate modelling and sea-level rise monitoring and projections to ensure sustainable management of the SA coast.
• Action 65 – prepare guidance on coastal development and landward migration to inform future policy and relevant instruments under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016, particularly in relation to planning policies and overlays included in the Planning and Design Code for types of development and tide-dependent ecosystems impacted by coastal processes and sea-level rise.

Other actions include:

• production of 13 coast-related trend and condition report cards
• introduction of the Environment Protection (Water Quality Policy) 2015
• release of a reform package to secure a sustainable fishing future
• release of a recreational fishery management plan
• establishment of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park
• restoration of the Gulf St Vincent shellfish reef
• update of the oyster code of practice
• review of the Aquaculture Regulations 2016 and environmental monitoring programs for the industry
• update of the code of practice for managing impact of sardine fishing on dolphins
• trial of a draft code of practice to manage/minimise the discharge of wastewater from commercial fishing vessels into the marine environment, particularly in Port Lincoln, and, as part of this, the development of vessel-specific management plans
• release of a report on a whole-of-ecosystem model for the management of fisheries in the Gulf St Vincent