Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322:front:0:p91
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 260466–263452

water boundary north from the Lacepede Islands to the Holothuria Banks offshore from Cape Bougainville. The Marine Park is adjacent to the Western Australian Lalang-garram/Camden Sound Marine Park and the North Kimberley Marine Park. The Marine Park covers an area of 74,469 km² and water depths from less than 15 m to 800 m.
The Marine Park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Kimberley Marine Park on 9 October 2017. The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category VI and includes three zones assigned under this plan: National Park Zone (II), Habitat Protection Zone (IV) and Multiple Use Zone (VI).
Coordinates for the Kimberley Marine Park and zones are provided in Figure S2.11 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Kimberley Marine Park is significant because it includes habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Northwest Shelf Province, Northwest Shelf Transition and Timor Province. It includes two key ecological features: the ancient coastline at the 125-m depth contour (an area of enhanced productivity and migratory pathway for cetaceans and pelagic marine species); and continental slope demersal fish communities (valued for high levels of endemism and diversity and the second richest area for demersal fish species in Australia).
The Marine Park provides connectivity between deeper offshore waters, and the inshore waters of the adjacent Western Australia North Kimberley Marine Park and Lalang-garram/Camden Sound Marine Park.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of:
  * Northwest Shelf Province—a dynamic environment influenced by strong tides, cyclonic storms, long-period swells and internal tides. The bioregion includes diverse benthic and pelagic fish communities, and an ancient coastline thought to be an important seafloor feature and migratory pathway for humpback whales.
  * Northwest Shelf Transition—straddles the North-west and North Marine Regions and in the North-west includes shelf break, continental slope, and the majority of the Argo Abyssal Plain and is subject to a high incidence of cyclones. Benthic biological communities in the deeper parts of the bioregion have not been extensively studied, although high levels of species diversity and endemism occur among demersal fish communities on the continental slope.
  * Timor Province—water depths (of the bioregion) ranging from about 200 m near the shelf break to 5920 m over the Argo Abyssal Plain. The reefs and islands of the bioregion are regarded as biodiversity hotspots. Endemism in demersal fish communities of the continental slope is high; two distinct communities have been identified on the upper and mid slopes.
Key ecological features of the Marine Park are:
  * the ancient coastline at the 125-m depth contour—where rocky escarpments are thought to provide biologically important habitats in areas otherwise dominated by soft sediments; and
  * the continental slope demersal