CANBERRA: Australia has created the world's largest network of marine reserves and will restrict fishing as well as oil and gas exploration in a major step to safeguard the environment and access to food.

With the expansion announced on Thursday, Australia will protect 3.1 million square kilometers of ocean.

The reserves will encompass a third of the island continent's territorial waters, which sustain more than 4,000 species of fish.

Australia is surrounded by the world's third-largest ocean territory, which provides important habitat to threatened species of whales, sharks and turtles as well as spectacular corals.

Previously only 800,000 square kilometers of Australian waters were protected. According to the Protect Planet Ocean website, only 2.85 million square kilometers of oceans worldwide were within marine protection areas before.—AP