Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00326:front:0:p84
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00326
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 244292–247387

key ecological features: mesoscale eddies (valued for high productivity and aggregations of marine life); ancient coastline between 90 m and 120 m depth (valued for relatively high productivity, aggregations of marine life and high levels of biodiversity and endemism); and the Commonwealth marine environment surrounding the Recherche Archipelago (valued for aggregations of marine life and high levels of biodiversity and endemism).
The Marine Park includes representative examples of habitats adjacent to the Recherche Archipelago, an area recognised globally for its biodiversity. The Archipelago contains over 150 islands stretching over 200 km² of ocean and represents the most extensive area of rocky reef environments in the region. Its reef and seagrass habitats support a high diversity of warm temperate species. The Marine Park captures one of the few areas where the reef extends into Commonwealth waters and includes Chester and Pollock reefs which are located south of Salisbury Island about 60–70 km offshore.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of:
  * South-west Shelf Province—marine life in this area is very diverse and clearly influenced by the warm waters of the Leeuwin Current. It includes globally important biodiversity hotspots, such as the waters surrounding the Recherche Archipelago;
  * Southern Province—includes the deepest ocean areas of the Australian EEZ, reaching depths of around 5900 m, and is characterised by a long continental slope, numerous, well-developed submarine canyons, and extensive mid-slope terraces; and
  * Great Australian Bight Shelf Transition—a vast and shallow area characterised by an extensive area of flat continental shelf. The invertebrate communities that inhabit the seafloor are among the most diverse in the world. The inshore areas of the bioregion are globally important for threatened southern right whale and the Australian sea lion.
Key ecological features of the Marine Park are:
  * Mesoscale eddies—important transporters of nutrients and plankton communities that form at predictable locations off the western and south-western shelf break;
  * Ancient coastline between 90 m and 120 m depth—high benthic biodiversity and productivity occur where the ancient coastline forms a prominent escarpment; and
  * Commonwealth marine environment surrounding the Recherche Archipelago—an area that supports high species biodiversity and provides important breeding and resting areas for marine life.
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, Australian sea lions and white sharks, and a calving buffer area for southern right whales.
Cultural values
Sea country is valued for Indigenous cultural identity, health and wellbeing. Across Australia, Indigenous people have been sustainably using and managing their sea country for tens of thousands of years.
The Ngadju and Esperance Nyungar people have