Queensland Seafood Industry Association (QSIA) President Michael Gardner said the changes will have a huge impact on commercial fishing operations.

"Queensland seafood consu-mers have a big stake in the process under way right now to create new marine parks right round the coast from the Northern Territory to New South Wales borders," Mr Michael Gardner said.

"They will certainly lose access to fresh local seafood because the new marine parks will include new 'no-fishing' zones.

"It is just a question of how much seafood they lose," he said.

Mr Gardner said seafood consumers, which equate to 95 percent of Queenslanders or more than four million people, were major stakeholders in this process but most consumers were not aware that it was happening.

"The past experience of so many Queensland coastal communities with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park rezoning process in 2004 should make everyone very conscious of what can go wrong again this time round."

The QSIA has been talking to both the Federal and State Governments about the new marine park plans and wanted to alert the general public to what is happening.

Mr Gardner said the Australian Government, through the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA), is currently mapping out new marine parks, in what it calls bio-regions, round the Australian coast.

In Queensland, these would affect the Gulf of Carpentaria and the entire east coast; except the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park.

These new marine parks would cover Commonwealth waters ? basically starting three miles off the coast ? but the Queensland Government then would be under pressure to impose complementary new marine parks, including matching no fishing zones, in State waters right into the high tide mark, the way it already has done with the GBR Marine Park.

"The areas being examined for possible marine parks produce thousands of tonnes of seafood worth hundreds of millions of dollars, most of which is eaten in Queensland by local residents and tourists," he said.

Mr Gardner said he was concerned mistakes made with the rezoning of the GBR Marine Park could be repeated with the new federal marine parks off Queensland.

"Many individuals and businesses were hurt by that (the GBR) rezoning in communities along most of the Queensland east coast, and no one wants to see that sort of damage done again," he said.