The Cod Grounds Marine Park (formerly known as the Cod Grounds Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is an
Australian marine park
Australian marine parks (formerly Commonwealth marine reserves) are marine protected areas located within Australian waters and are managed by the Australian government. These waters generally extend from three nautical miles off the coast to the ...
located approximately 5.5 km offshore of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, near
Laurieton. The marine park covers an area of and is assigned
IUCN category II. It is one of 8 parks managed under the
Temperate East Marine Parks Network.
Conservation values
*Established 2007 to protect a significant aggregation site for the critically endangered east coast population of
grey nurse shark
The sand tiger shark (''Carcharias taurus''), gray nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark or blue-nurse sand tiger, is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy sho ...
s. The area is characterised by a series of underwater pinnacles.
*Biologically important areas for the protected
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...
, vulnerable
white shark
The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...
and a number of migratory seabirds.
*Examples of the ecosystems of the Central Eastern Shelf Province
provincial bioregion and the Manning Shelf meso-scale bioregion.
History
The Marine Park was originally proclaimed on 10 May 2007 as the Cod Grounds Commonwealth Marine Reserve. The name of the reserve was later changed to Cod Grounds Marine Park on 9 October 2017.
[
]
Summary of protection zones
The Cod Grounds Marine park has been assigned IUCN protected area category
IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The enlisting of such areas is part ...
II and is wholly zoned as a National Park.[
The following table is a summary of the zoning rules within the Cod Grounds Marine Park:][
]
See also
* Protected areas managed by the Australian government
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...
References
External links
Temperate East Marine Parks Network - Parks Australia
Temperate East Marine Parks Network - environment.gov.au (outdated)
{{Protected areas managed by the Australian Government , state=collapsed
Australian marine parks