Yen and Butcher (1997) argued that the value of protecting invertebrate species without protection of their habitat is at the very least dubious. Writers as early as Rawlinson (1981) highlighted the deficiencies in protective legislation in Australia with its emphasis on protection of individuals rather than habitat and control of threatening processes, and emphasis on the conservation of rare and endangered species. Legislative protection alone will not ensure conservation of a species. For invertebrates in particular, protection per se is not generally synonymous with conservation, and in most cases is not effective (Yen and Butcher 1997). Yen and Butcher (1997) identified the priorities for species known to be at risk as: legal protection, identifying and alleviating the causes of decline, public education and involvement, and appropriate recovery plans. However, for the vast majority of invertebrates, conservation efforts need to focus more on a habitat protection approach rather than the individual species approach for the reasons outlined in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. Even passive habitat protection (such as reserve establishment), while a major first step, may be inadequate unless there is active management to reduce the causes of decline. Commonwealth, and some State, legislation now have provisions for the nomination of endangered populations, critical habitats and (in some cases) vulnerable communities, as well as key threatening processes (see Table 8.2).

The emphasis on protective legislation that promotes protection of individual organisms, as opposed to species protection, is based on the often false assumption that targeted collecting (or "harvesting") (with the exception of some commercially fished taxa) is the major threatening process to the species (Yen and Butcher 1997). Authorities responsible for the management of marine parks restrict the collecting of marine invertebrates and in permit applications, the exact number of individuals to be collected has to be given a priori, even though in the great majority of cases neither the research worker or the authority have any real knowledge of population levels or sustainable take. In the case of commercial species, or species targeted for food or bait, bag limits may be in force or restricted collecting seasons imposed (see Section 6.10).