Ningaloo Marine Park sanctuary zones, Western Australia

Ningaloo Marine Park is governed by the Prohibition on Recreational Fishing (Ningaloo Marine Park) Order 2005 (Order No. 12 of 2005, made under s.43 of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994), which restricts spearfishing in three different ways. Park-wide: no recreational fishing by means of a pointed instrument for rockcod or wrasse (clause 9), and none at all with the assistance of compressed air breathing apparatus, i.e. SCUBA or hookah (clause 10); clause 8 additionally protects Queensland groper, manta ray and molluscs. Area-based: the gazetted sanctuary areas are closed to all fishing, and the eleven Special Purpose Shore Based Activities Areas are closed to recreational fishing except line and throw-net fishing carried on without a boat (clause 6). Central section: clauses 4(1) and 5(1) close the General Use Areas and the Recreation Areas between 21°56.300’S (Tantabiddi Well) and 22°29.750’S (Winderabandi Point) to the pointed instrument as well, so the whole band fronting Cape Range National Park — the most-visited part of the park — is closed to spearfishing and not merely its sanctuary zones. This is a categorical entry for the park-wide rules; the central-section band and the individual gazetted sanctuary and special-purpose areas are mapped as separate zones. One caveat on that band: read literally, clauses 4(1) and 5(1) apply "north of 22° 29.7500’ south latitude; or south of 21° 56.300’ south latitude", a disjunction that would close the entire park. The reading on which general-use water outside the band stays open follows the administrator’s own construction — DPIRD’s clause polygon in its DPIRD-061 layer is bounded at exactly those two parallels, and the joint DPIRD/DBCA leaflet "Spearfishing in Ningaloo Marine Park" states "you cannot spearfish … between Tantabiddi Well and Winderabandi Point" — and not the literal words of the clause.