An environmental group says there's big support for a "no take" zone in at least a third of New Caledonia's waters.
The territory's waters have been given nominal protection under the Coral Sea Natural Park which was established in 2014 and experts were putting together a management plan for the 1.3 million square km zone.
The park was set up to protect the area's "exceptional biodiversity" and at the same time allow for responsible and sustainable economic development, according to the government website.
The management plan was to be presented to the government in April and in February a month-long consultation exercise was undertaken.
View from the Ouen Toro look out in Noumea, New Caledonia looking over the neighbouring Islands. Photo: Copyright: lisastrachan / 123RF Stock Photo
The Pew Charitable Trusts' project manager in New Caledonia Aline Schaffar said her group had collected 5000 signatures from people calling for at least 30 percent of the waters to be fully protected immediately.
She said generally there was little knowledge about the park and the work done so far had been back to front.
"This is not a marine protected area when we're talking about usage, we're talking about tourism, we're talking about fishing.
"It's what we call a 'paper park', so far," Aline Schaffar said.
New Caledonia's waters contain a fully protected World Heritage area and Ms Schaffar said that represented just 0.2 percent of the size of the park.
Looking out to the South Pacific Ocean from Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo: Copyright: lisastrachan / 123RF Stock Photo
She said while the management plan had a set number of objectives, it did not answer some crucial questions or have enough detail in order for people to give their opinion during the consultations.
"Does it mean we are going to do some protection? Does it mean we are going to open the park to deep sea mining?
"When it was created people were talking of an empty shell because there was no new protection implemented for this area. Three years later we are still at the same stage with no vision on concrete action, " Aline Schaffar said.
She said the consultation was too little too late and New Caledonians should have been engaged in conversation about the park a long time ago.
"People depend on the ocean. They have tribal clans called 'ocean clans' and these people need to be involved even though the area we are talking about is beyond the barrier reef, an area most people may never go," said Aline
Schaffar.
Noumea harbour, New Caledonia Photo: Copyright: lisastrachan / 123RF Stock Photo