The NSW government is preparing a “network management plan” for marine parks stretching from Byron Bay to Batemans Bay, stoking fears from conservationists and recreational fishers about the possible outcomes.

The move, disclosed in a parliamentary hearing by Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, follows the recent resignation of a member of the Batemans Marine Park Advisory Committee over that region’s weakened sanctuary protections. Montague Island, part of the Batemans zone, may also lose its international conservation rating.

Mr Marshall revealed in budget estimates the government was considering “the management of all the marine parks as one marine estate and doing a review of all of that estate”. Pilot work was already under way “for some period of time” at Batemans and Port Stephens, he said.

NSW has six marine parks, including at Lord Howe Island, off Jervis Bay, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay. The Department of Primary Industries, which oversees the offshore sanctuaries, has already begun discussions with the parks’ advisory committees.

Ross Constable, a former National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger responsible for Montague Island, said he had resigned from the Batemans Bay advisory committee because the removal of no-take sanctuaries within the park to allow recreational fishing ignored science and had been made without formal consultation with the committee.

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“It just flies in the face of good conservation practices,” he told the Sun-Herald. “This is purely a political decision.”

“People to the north of us should expect the same thing to happen to them” once the network review was completed, Mr Constable said.

A spokesman for Mr Marshall said the government was reviewing the marine parks to develop new plans and rules for their operation.