New moorings for Solitary Islands Marine Park

The Solitary Islands Marine Park is adopting a new colour scheme for its courtesy moorings for public use, and there will be more of them.

Marine park manager Nicola Johnstone said the courtesy moorings would be changed over the next few months from the current yellow to the new pink colour designating courtesy moorings for public use.

“This colour change will conform to NSW Maritime policy,” Ms Johnstone said.

“The conditions of use will remain the same. Essentially, pink moorings are provided throughout NSW for use by various vessel owners including commercial and recreational users.

“There are 38 medium sized moorings in the Solitary Islands Marine Park that cater for vessels up to 13m in length and for use in winds of up to 21 knots.

“Three of these are recent additions to the suite of moorings available and are funded by the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority.”

Ms Johnstone said two of the new moorings were located at Split Solitary Island and one at North Solitary Island.

Five new large moorings, funded by the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, are to be placed at North Solitary Island in the coming months for use by vessels up to 25m in length such as prawn trawlers and for use in winds of up to 21 knots.

“All moorings are strategically placed in areas where fragile corals and other sensitive seafloor communities exist,” Ms Johnstone said.

“The majority of moorings are close to the five major islands in the Solitary Islands Marine Park.“

There are conditions of use for moorings specific to the marine park such as:

• a person must not attach a vessel to an MPA mooring that exceeds the maximum carrying capacity of that mooring
• a person must not attach a vessel to another vessel that is attached to an MPA mooring
• a vessel can not occupy an MPA mooring for more than 12 hours
• fishing is not permitted from a vessel attached to an MPA mooring.

Anchoring is not permitted in sanctuary zones, therefore, moorings are provided.

Ocean marker buoys that delineate the boundaries of sanctuary zones are yellow in colour and will remain so.

These are located at South Solitary Island, Split Solitary Island, North West Solitary Island and North Solitary Island.