Claims by Coffs coast fishermen and politicians that proposed changes to the Solitary Islands Marine Park are made without scientific research have been rejected.
The changes could see a ban on commercial prawn trawling and an expansion of sanctuary zones from 12 to 20 per cent of the park.
Department of Environment and Climate Change environmental scientist Alan Jordan says the area has been comprehensively studied.
He says research since 2002 reveals the park is more unique than previously thought.
"Solitary has been the focus of a very significant research program in relation to seabed mapping," he said.
"It's one of the more comprehensively mapped marine parks in New South Wales and a whole range of other biodiversity assessments that have improved our knowledge of the spatial distribution of the biodiversity within the park.
"Certainly, there has been a considerable amount of focus of scientific research in the region."
Mr Jordan says the area deserves the highest possible protection.
"It is influenced by both warm and cold water so that mix results in it being an area of extremely high biodiversity," he said.
"It has a significant number of offshore islands so you can be anywhere up to 10 kilometres off the coast and still only in five metres of water, which means that you can get shallow water communities way out on the Continental Shelf, which is again quite a unique characteristic of the region."
