Conservationist have scored the federal government's decision to permit oil drilling off Margaret River in Western Australia despite assurance from the resources ministry that the project will observe the strongest safety and environment protection regulations in place.

The Conservation Council said that the exploration project must be banned but Resources Minister Martin Ferguson countered that scrapping the oil drilling operation is out of the question.

Conservation Council spokesman Tim Nicol criticised the decision to allow the exploration off Margaret River, "which is an icon in Western Australia of our clean, green environment both on land with the wineries and the forest and then the ocean with our great West Australian seafood and our beautiful clean beaches and our surfing lifestyle."

He said that their group will work to muster enough public pressure in hopes that involved parties may think twice in continuing the project, stressing that the area of concern holds more unique marine life than that of the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Nicol said that the debate all boils down to the project's impacts on the south-west marine environment, which is "home to 90 per cent unique marine life and up to half of the world's whale and dolphin species."

He stressed that oil and gas explorations alone would create seismic activity that affects whales, adding that it can also "brings smaller spills and pollution into the marine environment and of course the risk of a big spill like we have seen in Louisiana, like we have in the Montara in Western Australia just last year."

An environment group coalition is currently lobbying for the government to establish a network of marine sanctuaries off Australian coastline even as Mr Ferguson said that the area off Margaret River would still be studied as a marine reserve though within the framework of existing oil and gas leases.

Meanwhile, Augusta-Margaret River shire president Ray Colyer said that they have yet to decide on whether to support the oil project in the area but gave assurance that they "will be keeping an eye on the proceedings as they happen and if asked by any of the relevant agencies, they will make a submission if and when drilling exploration is to occur."

Also, Professor Brian Evans from Curtin University is doubtful that oil drilling off the area in question will ever take off as he cited that oil companies must first conduct all the basic studies and consider all the geological and geophysical factors.

"Once they figured out that this is a potential trapping mechanism, and might in fact not even drill, might walk away from it so there are no predictions you can make until the initial studies are done," he said.