Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322:front:0:p76
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00322
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 219217–222293

the processes that support their connectivity, productivity and function.
  * Cultural values—living and cultural heritage recognising Indigenous beliefs, practices and obligations for country, places of cultural significance and cultural heritage sites.
  * Heritage values—non-Indigenous heritage that has aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance.
  * Socio-economic values—the benefit of marine parks for people, businesses and the economy.
Values will be used to inform the Director's decisions when authorising activities in marine parks. Activities will be assessed in relation to their impacts on and risk to values to ensure activities are undertaken in a manner that minimises impacts to as low as reasonably practicable (Section 4.2 Making decisions about activities).
As understanding of park values improves over time, updated information will be available on the Parks Australia website.
Other sources of information on marine park values can be found on the Department's website, in particular, for protected species (species profile and threats database), wetlands (Australian wetlands directory), heritage places (Australian heritage database), and shipwrecks (Australian national shipwrecks database); and in the Marine bioregional plan for the North-west Marine Region (2012) and the North-west marine bioregional plan: bioregional profile (2008).
Shark Bay Marine Park
The Shark Bay Marine Park (Figure S2.1) is located approximately 60 km offshore of Carnarvon, adjacent to the Shark Bay world heritage property and national heritage place. The Marine Park covers an area of 7443 km², extending from the Western Australian state water boundary, and a water depth range between 15 m and 220 m.
The Marine Park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Shark Bay Marine Park on 9 October 2017. The Marine Park is assigned IUCN category VI and includes one zone assigned under this plan: Multiple Use Zone (VI).
Coordinates for the Shark Bay Marine Park and zone are provided in Figure S2.1 and Schedule 4.
Statement of significance
The Shark Bay Marine Park is significant because it contains habitats, species and ecological communities associated with the Central Western Shelf Province and Central Western Transition. The Marine Park provides connectivity between deeper Commonwealth waters and the inshore waters of the Shark Bay world heritage property.
Natural values
The Marine Park includes examples of ecosystems representative of:
  * Central Western Shelf—a predominantly flat, sandy and low-nutrient area, in water depths 50–100 m. The bioregion is a transitional zone between tropical and temperate species; and
  * 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 .
Ecosystems represented in the Marine Park are influenced by the Leeuwin, Ningaloo and Capes currents.
The Marine Park supports a range of