Australia will create the world's largest network of marine parks as the world "turns a corner" on ocean protection, Environment Minister Tony Burke has announced.

The network, announced this morning, is made up of five main zones in offshore waters surrounding every state and territory.

But the Government will have to pay up to $100 million in compensation to commercial fishers who will be locked out of some of the new marine parks.

"It's time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans," Mr Burke said as he announced the plans today.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 43 seconds 3 m 43 s Burke unveils marine park network Download 1.7 MB

"Australia today is leading that next step."

The maps released today closely resemble those revealed by the ABC on Monday, but there is much more detail and new areas of protection right around the country.

The proposed network places limits on oil and gas exploration off Western Australia and extends reef protection in the Coral Sea.

"This is the largest network of marine reserves anywhere in the world," Mr Burke told AM.

"What we've done is effectively create a national parks estate in the ocean.

"The areas where you’ve got some of the most substantial outcomes are areas like the south-west of WA, areas like the Perth Canyon, which is an area as large as the Grand Canyon that would have been protected years ago had it been on land."

But the plan has drawn fire from commercial and recreational fishers, who say it goes too far, and from the Greens, who say it does not go far enough.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he is "instinctively against" anything which impinges on the rights of recreational fishermen.

And he expressed caution about the plan's potential impact on tourism and on commercial fishing operations.

"We know from this Government's record that they can't be trusted to get the consultation right, they can't be trusted to get the implementation right, and often enough they can't even be trusted to get the science right," he said.

Fremantle-based commercial fisherman Clayton Nelson employs 20 people and said new marine parks in his area would see him lose about 35 per cent of his business.

"We're going to have to review how we do our business, how we go forward," he said.

"It's not a good day for us, I can't hide from that.

"We're going to lose access to a very benign fishery that we can supply local fresh product to the community.

"That's going to be taken away not just from us, it's going to be taken away from the community."

Dean Logan from the Australian Marine Alliance said the plan would hurt commercial fishers.

"It's basically saying to Australians you cannot be trusted to be good custodians of the environment," he said.

Professional prawn fishing groups says the marine park reserves will have a severe impact on the prawn industry in northern Australia.

Austral Fisheries general manager Andy Prendergast says the marine reserves, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, will exclude them from their most important fishing grounds for Tiger and Banana prawns.

He says the decision could effectively wipe out Australia's free-range prawn fishing industry.

"There is a tipping point," he said.

"If we can't get access to these areas, that could effectively put us out of business in time."

The Amateur Fisherman's Association of the Northern Territory says the park network will affect commercial fisheries more than recreational anglers.

Association executive officer Chris Makepiece says amateur anglers in the Territory fared much better than other states.

The plan falls short of demands by environmental groups who wanted all commercial fishing in the Coral Sea banned, while oil and gas exploration will still be allowed close to some protected areas.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said many of the many of the reserves off Australia's north-west coast seemed to skirt around oil and gas exploration areas.

"The industry seems to have had a significant impact on determining where reserves will be," she said.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 2 minutes 58 seconds 2 m 58 s Fishers furious at marine park plan ( Simon Santow ) Download 1.4 MB

Mr Burke described the "jewel in the crown" of the plan as being the Coral Sea off Queensland.

"People were saying we'd protected a lot of the Coral Sea in our proposal but people are asking us to really push the boundaries and cover some more reefs," he said.

"Well, in the final government position that comes out later today we’ve added Marion Reef, Bougainville Reef, Vema Reef, Shark Reef and Osprey Reef ... one of the top dive sites in the world.

"Throughout the whole of the Coral Sea there is a ban on oil and gas and we've established a significant area around the Margaret River area where oil and gas will also be excluded."

The Australian Conservation Foundation's Chris Smyth says although the park declarations do not go as far as he would like, he is still very happy with the announcement.

"There's a lot of stakeholders involved in this: the oil and gas industry, the commercial and recreational fishermen, environment groups and so on.

"Obviously some of the areas we would have liked to have got are still being opened to oil and gas interests and commercial interests, but across the board we think it's a major achievement in terms of oceans conservation."

A final consultation process is to be completed before the initiative goes ahead.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 47 seconds 1 m 47 s Don Henry, Dean Logan on marine parks plan

Recreational fishers believe the Government's plans are all about winning green votes in the cities, and they say it is absurd to protect areas where fish are thriving.

Sunfish Queensland - which represents 35,000 mostly recreational fishers - says the move is a step too far.

"What it does do is it takes away the validity of the true value of a green zone, which is there to protect things that are under threat," the organisation's Judy Lynne said.

"[It will be] a huge tourism loss to Queensland. There are a few iconic places where people like to go and fish in Australia, out off the Kimberleys, up in the Gulf and in the Coral Sea.

"That's now taken away from generations to come, when we have been shown to have no impact."

Ms Lynne also said Australia's border security could be compromised if fishers are excluded from areas like the Coral Sea.

But the Government says most of the reserves are far offshore, and that very few recreational anglers will be affected.

The Australian Conservation Foundation says today's announcement is just the start of taking back Australia's waters for preservation.

"It's a historic conservation achievement. And we are going to be the leader, the global leader in oceans protection," Mr Smyth said.

"We understand the circumstances we find ourselves in in terms of the politics and the economics.

"But we just want to keep working with the government, with stakeholders and with the community to gradually improve the way we look after our oceans."