Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve and Cartier Island Marine Reserve Management Plans 2002

Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve and Cartier Island Marine Reserve (the ‘Reserves’) lie off the coast of northern Western Australia in the eastern Indian Ocean (Figures 1 and 2).
Located in Australia’s External Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Reserves are under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Australia. They are within an area subject to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Indonesia and Australia (Attachment 1), which provides for continued Indonesian traditional fishing activities in an area known as the MOU Box (Figure 1).
The Reserves were established by the Commonwealth for the purposes of protecting their outstanding and representative marine ecosystems and to facilitate scientific research. Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve was established on 16 August 1983 (see Figure 2 and Attachment 2). Cartier Island Marine Reserve was established on 21 June 2000 (See Figure 3 and Attachment 3).
The Reserves were established by proclamations under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975, which was replaced by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) on 16 July 2000. The proclamations of the Reserves are continued by the Environmental Reform (Consequential Provisions) Act 1999 (ER(CP) Act) as if they had been made under the EPBC Act, and as if the proclamations stated that the purposes for which the Reserves were declared were: the preservation of the area in its natural condition; and, the encouragement and regulation of the appropriate use, appreciation and enjoyment of the area by the public.
The Reserves protect biologically diverse reef systems of Australia’s North West Shelf, and are in the Oceanic Shoals Bioregion.The Oceanic Shoals Bioregion is described in the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia: an Ecosystem-based Classification for Marine and Coastal Environments (IMCRA Technical Group 1998).
The Reserves have international significance due to their high biological diversity, oceanic location, cultural values, and geomorphological make up. Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve protects a vital genetic ‘bank’ for the region (Glenn and O’Brien 1999). Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve is listed on the Register of the National Estate1. Ashmore is also included on the World Conservation Union (IUCN) list of Coral Reefs of International Significance.
A number of species in the Reserves are protected under the EPBC Act (Part 13). This includes cetaceans, and listed marine, threatened and migratory species (Attachment 4).
The fauna of the Reserves is considered regionally, and in some cases internationally, significant. A number of species present, such as marine turtles, dugongs, migratory birds and some seabird species are protected under international agreements (Attachment 4). Several species found in the Reserves are on the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Many bird species found in the Reserves are listed on the Japan–Australia and China–Australia Migratory Bird Agreements (JAMBA and CAMBA).
The reefs of the Reserves, along with the nearby Hibernia Reef, are notable for high biodiversity. The Reserves protect critical habitat for an unusually high diversity and abundance of sea snakes (Hanley and Russell 1993), and provide feeding and breeding areas for turtles and critical habitat for dugongs (Whiting et al. 1999). Ashmore Reef supports the greatest number of coral species of any reef off the West Australian coast (Veron 1993) and has a rich echinoderm fauna (Marsh et al. 1993). It also has the most diverse marine fish fauna of any region in Western Australia (Hutchins 1998). Additionally, the Reserves contain endemic sea snakes and molluscs, and are the largest emergent reef systems in the region.
The reefs of the Reserves exhibit high levels of inter-dependency with adjacent ecosystems to the north and south. Along with a limited number of other reefs in the region, Cartier and Ashmore reefs are considered important as biological stepping-stones, facilitating the transport of biological material to the reef systems along the Western Australian coast (Simpson et al. 1991). The major southern flowing current that originates in the region, the Leeuwin Current, and its interaction with other currents plays a significant role in the maintenance of coral reef and algal communities further to the south.
The Reserves have historical and cultural significance. In particular, traditional Indonesian fishers have an historic and ongoing cultural and economic association with islands and reefs in the region. Resources of the Reserves have been harvested by Indonesian fishers for hundreds of years. Traditional Indonesian fishers continue to regularly visit Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve for fresh water, shelter and to visit grave sites.
Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve and Cartier Island Marine Reserve are small but critical elements of the wider region. Australian government agencies, in cooperation with Indonesian stakeholders, are continuing to look at options for management and research on a regional scale, and to integrate management of Ashmore and Cartier into a broader regional perspective.

This dataset record is provided by Parks Australia to highlight research conducted within or relevant to Australian Marine Parks. The original publication and associated intellectual property remain with the source organisation.
This publication was previously made available via the Australian Marine Parks Science Atlas and is provided here to maintain access following the decommissioning of that platform








Tags: Ashmore reef, Australian marine parks, Leeuwin Current, PROTECTED SPECIES, cartier island, managment plans, reef systems
Organization: Parks Australia