Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322:front:0:p81
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 233058–236190

The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category IV and includes three zones assigned under this plan: National Park Zone (II), Habitat Protection Zone (IV) and Multiple Use Zone (VI).
Coordinates for the Gascoyne Marine Park and zones are provided in Figure S2.4 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Gascoyne Marine Park is significant because it contains habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Central Western Shelf Transition, Central Western Transition, and Northwest Province. It includes four key ecological features: Canyons linking the Cuvier Abyssal Plain and the Cape Range Peninsula (valued for unique seafloor features with ecological properties of regional significance); Commonwealth waters adjacent to Ningaloo Reef (valued for high productivity and aggregations of marine life); continental slope demersal fish communities (valued for high levels of endemism and diversity); and the Exmouth Plateau (valued as a unique seafloor feature with ecological properties of regional significance).
The Marine Park includes some of the most diverse continental slope habitats in Australia, in particular the continental slope area between North West Cape and the Montebello Trough. Canyons in the Marine Park link the Cuvier Abyssal Plain to the Cape Range Peninsula and are important for their role in sustaining the nutrient conditions that support the high diversity of Ningaloo Reef.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of:
  * Central Western Shelf Transition—continental shelf with water depths up to 100 m, and a significant transition zone between tropical and temperate species;
  * Central Western Transition—characterised by large areas of continental slope, a range of topographic features such as terraces, rises and canyons, seasonal and sporadic upwelling, and benthic slope communities comprising tropical and temperate species; and
  * Northwest Province—an area of continental slope comprising diverse and endemic fish communities.
Key ecological features of the Marine Park are:
  * Canyons linking the Cuvier Abyssal Plain and the Cape Range Peninsula—an area resulting in upwelling of nutrient rich water and aggregations of marine life;
  * Commonwealth waters adjacent to Ningaloo Reef—an area where the Leeuwin and Ningaloo currents interact resulting in enhanced productivity and aggregations of marine life;
  * Continental slope demersal fish communities—an area of high diversity of demersal fish assemblages on the continental slope; and
  * Exmouth Plateau—a regionally and nationally unique deep-sea plateau in tropical waters.
Ecosystems represented in the Marine Park are influenced by the interaction of the Leeuwin Current, Leeuwin Undercurrent and the Ningaloo Current.
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, internesting habitat for marine turtles, a migratory pathway for humpback whales, and foraging habitat and migratory pathway