Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00321:front:0:p78
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00321
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 227296–230153

South Wales, adjacent to the New South Wales Lord Howe Island Marine Park and World Heritage Area. The Marine Park covers an area of 110,126 km² and a depth range from less than 15 m to 6000 m.
The Lord Howe Marine Park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Lord Howe Marine Park on 9 October 2017. It includes the areas of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters) originally proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 on 7 June 2000, and the Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Nature Reserve originally proclaimed under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 on 11 December 1987. The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category IV and includes five zones assigned under this plan: National Park Zone (II), Habitat Protection Zone (IV), Habitat Protection Zone (Lord Howe) (IV), Recreational Use Zone (IV) and Multiple Use Zone (VI).
Coordinates for the Lord Howe Marine Park and zones are provided in Figure S2.3 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Lord Howe Marine Park is significant because it includes habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Lord Howe Province and the Tasman Basin Province. It includes three key ecological features: the Lord Howe Seamount Chain; Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs (the southernmost coral reefs in the world); and the Tasman Front and eddy field, all valued for high productivity, aggregations of marine life, biodiversity and endemism.
The Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Ramsar site is located within the Marine Park. The site was listed under the Ramsar Convention in 2002 and is a wetland of international importance under the EPBC Act, due to its unique nature as the southernmost open-ocean coral-reef platform in the world. An Ecological Character Description that sets out the Ramsar listing criteria met by the site, the key threats and knowledge gaps, is available on the Department's website.
The Marine Park includes habitats connecting to and complementing the adjacent New South Wales Lord Howe Island Marine Park.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of:
  * Lord Howe Province—due to the convergence of warm, tropical and cooler temperate waters in the area, the Marine Park supports a unique mix of tropical, subtropical and temperate species, many found at the northern or southern extent of their range.
  * Tasman Basin Province—interactions between currents, eddies and seamounts and the movements of the deep sub-Antarctic water mass influence biological productivity in this area.
Key ecological features of the Marine Park are:
  * Lord Howe Seamount Chain—a chain of submerged volcanoes running 1000 km north–south, the seamount chain includes Lord Howe Island and Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs. These isolated, oceanic reefs support