Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322:front:0:p88
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 252420–255288

Roebuck Marine Park
Mermaid Reef Marine Park
The Mermaid Reef Marine Park (Figure S2.9) is located approximately 280 km north-west of Broome, adjacent to the Argo–Rowley Terrace Marine Park and approximately 13 km from the Western Australian Rowley Shoals Marine Park. The Marine Park covers an area of 540 km² and water depths from less than 15 m to 500 m.
The Marine Park was originally proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 on 10 April 1991 as the Mermaid Reef Marine National Nature Reserve, and proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Mermaid Reef Marine Park on 9 October 2017. The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category II and includes one zone assigned under this plan: National Park Zone (II).
Coordinates for the Mermaid Reef Marine Park and zone are provided in Figure S2.9 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Mermaid Reef Marine Park is significant because it contains habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Northwest Transition. It includes one key ecological feature: Mermaid Reef and Commonwealth waters surrounding Rowley Shoals (valued for its high productivity, aggregations of marine life and high species richness).
Mermaid Reef is one of three reefs forming the Rowley Shoals. The other two are Clerke Reef and Imperieuse Reef, to the south-west of the Marine Park, which are included in the Western Australian Rowley Shoals Marine Park. The Rowley Shoals have been described as the best geological examples of shelf atolls in Australian waters.
The reefs of the Rowley Shoals are ecologically significant in that they are considered ecological stepping stones for reef species originating in Indonesian/Western Pacific waters, are one of a few offshore reef systems on the north-west shelf, and may also provide an upstream source for recruitment to reefs further south.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of the Northwest Transition—an area of shelf break, continental slope, and the majority of the Argo Abyssal Plain. Together with Clerke Reef and Imperieuse Reef, Mermaid Reef is a biodiversity hotspot and key topographic feature of the Argo Abyssal Plain.
A key ecological feature of the Marine Park is the Mermaid Reef and Commonwealth waters surrounding Rowley Shoals—an area of enhanced productivity and high species richness thought to be facilitated by internal wave action generated by internal tides in the lagoon.
Ecosystems of the Marine Park are associated with emergent reef flat, deep reef flat, lagoon, and submerged sand habitats.
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 breeding habitat for seabirds and a migratory pathway for the pygmy