Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00321:front:0:p74
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00321
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 216497–219442

Socio-economic values—the benefit of marine parks for people, businesses and the economy.
Values will be used to inform the Director's decisions when authorising activities in marine parks. Activities will be assessed in relation to their impacts and risk to values, to ensure activities are undertaken in a manner that minimises impacts to as low as reasonably practicable (Section 4.3 Making decisions about activities).
As understanding of park values improves over time, updated information will be available on the Parks Australia website.
Other sources of information on marine park values can be found on the Department's website, in particular, for protected species (species profile and threats database), wetlands (Australian wetlands directory), heritage places (Australian heritage database), and shipwrecks (Australian national shipwrecks database), and in the Marine bioregional plan for the Temperate East Marine Region (2012) and the East marine bioregional plan: bioregional profile (2009).
Gifford Marine Park
The Gifford Marine Park (Figure S2.1) is located approximately 480 km north of Lord Howe Island and borders on the limit of Australia's exclusive economic zone. The Marine Park covers an area of 5828 km² and a depth range between 220 m and 4000 m.
The Marine Park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Gifford Marine Park on 9 October 2017. The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category IV and includes one zone assigned under this plan: Habitat Protection Zone (IV).
Coordinates for the Gifford Marine Park and zone are provided in Figure S2.1 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Gifford Marine Park is significant because it contains habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Lord Howe Province. It includes one key ecological feature: the Lord Howe Seamount Chain, valued for high productivity, aggregations of marine life, biodiversity and endemism.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of the Lord Howe Province. Ecosystems of this region are influenced by tropical and temperate currents due to its location in the path of the Tasman Front that brings a mix of warm tropical waters and colder, nutrient-rich waters from the south.
A key ecological feature of the Marine Park is the Lord Howe Seamount Chain—running approximately 1000 km north–south from the Coral Sea to Lord Howe Island. The Lord Howe Seamount Chain contains a series of submerged mountains that includes Lord Howe Island and Gifford Tablemount, the prominent seafloor feature of the Marine Park.
The Marine Park supports a range of species, including species listed as threatened, migratory, marine or cetacean under the EPBC Act. Biologically important areas within the Marine Park include foraging habitat for seabirds and a migratory pathway for humpback whales.
Cultural values
Sea country is valued for Indigenous cultural identity, health