| Great Australian Bight Marine Park Australia | |
|---|---|
  Great Australian Bight Marine Park | |
| Nearest town or city | Ceduna, South Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°24′00″S130°23′00″E / 33.40000°S 130.38333°E Coordinates: 33°24′00″S130°23′00″E / 33.40000°S 130.38333°E |
| Established | 8 December 2012 [1] |
| Area | 45,926 km2 (17,732.1 sq mi) [2] |
| Managing authorities | Director of National Parks |
| Website | Great Australian Bight Marine Park |
Great Australian Bight Marine Park (formerly Great Australian Bight Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is a marine protected area located in the Great Australian Bight south of South Australia in waters within the Australian Exclusive economic zone. [3]
Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or large lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. In some situations, MPAs also provide revenue for countries, potentially equal to the income that they would have if they were to grant companies permissions to fish.
The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia.
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of 28,684.
Contents
It was gazetted in November 2012 to replace the Great Australian Bight Marine Park (Commonwealth waters). [1] It was renamed on 11 October 2017. [4]
Great Australian Bight Marine Park is a former marine protected area located in the Great Australian Bight immediately south of South Australia and its immediate onshore waters. On 8 November 2012, it was replaced by a new protected area known as the Great Australian Bight Commonwealth Marine Reserve.
The marine park consists of three zones - a marine national park zone (IUCN Category II) with an area of 7,728 square kilometres (2,984 square miles), a multiple use zone (IUCN Category VI) with an area of 22,682 square kilometres (8,758 square miles) and a special purpose zone (IUCN Category VI) which occupies three separate areas of ocean with a total area of 15,516 square kilometres (5,991 square miles). [2] [3]
The purpose of the marine park is to protect habitat used for calving by the Southern right whale and as a feeding area for the following species - Australian sea lion, sperm whale, short-tailed shearwater and great white shark. [2]
The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena.
The Australian sea lion, also known as the Australian sea-lion or Australian sealion, is a species of sea lion that is the only endemic pinniped in Australia. It is currently monotypic in the genus Neophoca, with the extinct Pleistocene New Zealand sea lion Neophoca palatina the only known congener. These sea lions are sparsely distributed through Houtman Arbrolhos Islands in Western Australia and The Pages Islands in southern Australia. With a population estimated at around 14,730 animals, the Wildlife Conservation Act of Western Australia (1950) has listed them as “in need of special protection”. Their Conservation status is listed as endangered. These pinnipeds are specifically known for their abnormal breeding cycles, which are varied between a 5-month breeding cycle and a 17- to 18-month aseasonal breeding cycle, compared to other pinnipeds which fit into a 12-month reproductive cycle. Females are either silver or fawn with a cream underbelly and males are dark chocolate brown with a yellow mane and are bigger than the females.
The sperm whale or cachalot is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
It is part of a group of Australian marine parks known as the South-west Marine Parks Network. [2] It is also part of the group of marine protected areas which are located together in waters within Australian and South Australian jurisdictions within the Great Australian Bight and which were collectively known as the Great Australian Bight Marine Park as recently as 2005. [5]
Australian marine parks are marine protected areas located within Australian waters and are managed by the Australian government. These waters generally extend from three nautical miles off the coast to the outer limit of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone at 200 nautical miles while marine protected areas located closer in-shore are the responsibility of the states or the Northern Territory.
It lies to the west of the Western Eyre Marine Park.[ citation needed ]
Western Eyre Marine Park is a marine protected area located in the Great Australian Bight south of South Australia in waters within the Australian Exclusive economic zone.
