Camden Sound is a relatively wide body of water in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

located in the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The Sound is bounded by the

Bonaparte Archipelago The Bonaparte Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia in the Kimberley region, within the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley. The closest inhabited place is Kalumburu located about to the east of the island group. Th ...

to the north-east, the

Buccaneer Archipelago The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine ...

to the south-west, and

Montgomery Reef Montgomery Reef is a reef off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. It is situated at the south western end of Camden Sound and surrounds Yawajaba (Montgomery) Island. With its total area of (about in length), it is the world's largest ...

(the eastern extent of Collier Bay) to the south. The Sound is an important area for a number of marine animals, in particular as a breeding ground for various species of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s, and is home to the world's largest population of

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 ...

s. The Lalang-garram / Camden Sound Marine Park is jointly managed by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

. The marine park lies about north-east of Broome, and is the second largest marine park in Western Australia after

Shark Bay Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...

. , there is a plan to include this and three other nearby marine parks into one large marine park called Lalang-gaddam Marine Park (formerly named Great Kimberley Marine Park).

History

Aboriginal peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

lived and fished in the area for a long time before the colonisation of Western Australia. Camden Sound was "discovered" by Captain

Phillip Parker King Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Jo ...

on HMS ''Bathurst'' on 15 August 1821. He named the sound ''Camden Bay'' after

John Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden, (11 February 17598 October 1840), styled Viscount Bayham from 1786 to 1794 and known as The 2nd Earl Camden from 1794 to 1812, was a British politician. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the re ...

. Camden Harbour was a short-lived settlement within the sound. Three native title claims have been registered in the area of the marine park by the

Dambimangari The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditional ...

Uunguu The Wunambal (Unambal), also known as Wunambal Gaambera, Uunguu (referring to their lands), and other names, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. People The Wunambal were, according to Norma ...

and

Mayala The Yawijibaya, also written Jaudjibaia, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. Along with the Unggarranggu people, they are the traditional owners of Buccaneer Archipelago, off Derby, togeth ...

native title groups. The Dambimangari claim lies over the majority of the park, with the Uunguu claim overlying a small portion of the St George Basin, and Mayala at the southwestern end of the park.

Description

Camden Sound is bounded by the

to the north-east (

Augustus Island Augustus Island is one of the many uninhabited Canadian Arctic islands in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut. It is a Baffin Island offshore island located in inner Frobisher Bay. The island lies at the head of Ward Inlet, between Becher Peninsula an ...

being the largest in this group), the

to the south-west (stretching to Sunday Island), and

(the eastern extent of Collier Bay On the

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment The Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) was an Australian Government department which operated from 1 February 2020 until 30 June 2022. It represented Australia's national interests in agriculture, water and th ...

websit
here
Date assumed per last date mentioned in publication (2010), and author as per website.) to the south. Camden Sound includes Champagny, Byam Martin and the

Heywood Islands Jungulu Island is an island off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. The island is approximately offshore and only a short distance to the north east of Augustus Island with a total area of about and is found at the southern end of the ...

to the west (all part of the Bonaparte Archipelago), and Bumpus Island, Rice Rocks, Sampson Inlet, Deception Bay and Prior Point to the south. There is no road access and the nearest town is Kalumburu, to the east. The area is a

drowned valley A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...

in the western end of the MacDonald Range, the islands that are found within the sound are remnant emergent features formed by

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

formations. As with the rest of the Kimberley coast, the area is marked by an extreme tidal variation of up to on a spring tide.

Environmental importance

The area has received worldwide recognition as a crucial breeding and calving area for the Breeding Group D population of

s (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') – at approximately 22,000 individuals, the world's largest humpback whale population. The calves are suckled in the warm, tropical waters for several months until they gain the strength for the journey back to the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

for summer feeding. Camden Sound is rich in other

cetacean Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...

s including the

Australian snubfin dolphin The Australian snubfin dolphin (''Orcaella heinsohni'') is a dolphin found off the northern coasts of Australia. It closely resembles the Irrawaddy dolphin (of the same genus, ''Orcaella'') and was not described as a separate species until 2005 ...

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

pygmy killer whale The pygmy killer whale (''Feresa attenuata'') is a poorly known and rarely seen oceanic dolphin. It is the only species in the genus ''Feresa''. It derives its common name from sharing some physical characteristics with the orca also known as t ...

pilot whale Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, a ...

s and

bottlenose dolphin Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...

s. In addition, the area is surrounded by fringing reefs with

hard Hard may refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series * Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock supe ...

and

soft coral Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. In addition to the fleshy soft corals, the order Alcyonacea now contains all species previously known as "gorgonian corals", that produce a more or less hard skeleton, though quite different f ...

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s, fish and

marine invertebrate Marine invertebrates are the invertebrates that live in marine habitats. Invertebrate is a blanket term that includes all animals apart from the vertebrate members of the chordate phylum. Invertebrates lack a vertebral column, and some have evo ...

Marine park

The

Kimberley Marine Park The Kimberley Marine Park, formerly known as the Kimberley Commonwealth Marine Reserve and also known as the Great Kimberley Marine Park, is an Australian marine parks, Australian marine park offshore of Western Australia, near the Kimberley ( ...

is a

Commonwealth government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

area covered by the national ''

EPBC Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

'', covering an expanse of ocean outside the limits of the Camden Sound and other state parks, stretching from south of

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averages about in width. The port town ...

to nearly the top of the

North Kimberley Marine Park The North Kimberley Marine Park is the largest state-managed marine park in Western Australia and second largest in Australia. covering or about north-east of Derby. It is located in the Indian Ocean and the Timor Sea, extending from York Sou ...

. This area consists mostly of Multiple Use Zone (

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

VI), but also includes sections of national park (IUCN II) and Habitat Protection (IUCN IV) zones, the latter two mostly just outside the Camden Sound and King Sound areas.

Camden Sound

The Camden Sound Marine Park was the first of four new marine parks announced under the Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy, and covers an area of . In October 2009,

Donna Faragher Donna Evelyn Mary Faragher (née Taylor; born 12 September 1975) is an Australian politician who has been a Liberal Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia since 2005, representing East Metropolitan Region. She became a mi ...

, Western Australia's Environment Minister, announced that Camden Sound would become the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

's first Marine Park, largely in recognition of the area's status as nursery and breeding area to the world's largest population of humpback whales. The park is the second largest in Western Australia after

, and links to the

Prince Regent National Park Prince Regent National Park, formerly the Prince Regent Nature Reserve, is a protected area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 1978 the area was nominated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. Land The national park covers a tot ...

. The area includes

Champagny Island Champagny Island, known to the traditional owners as Nimenba, is an island off the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia. Located on the western side of Camden Sound and part of the Champagny Islands group within the Bonaparte Ar ...

and St George Basin. The Lalang-garram / Camden Sound Marine Park is jointly managed by the

(formerly the

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

(DPaW)) via its agency, the

Parks and Wildlife Service The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Government of Western Australia, Western Australian government department responsible for managing lands and waters described in the ''Conservation and Land Management A ...

and the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

, the Dambimangari group. It is the first jointly managed marine park in Australia, and has benefited from the involvement of the traditional owners of the land and waters. The Dambimangari people chose the name "Lalang-garram", being a

Worrorra The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditional ...

word meaning “the saltwater as a spiritual place as well as a place of natural abundance”, relating to the ocean in a general sense. The conservation objectives of the government and the traditional owners are aligned, with the latter wanting to ensure that their saltwater country stays in good health, and that no plants or animals become

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

in the area. Many species and

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s have cultural significance to the local peoples, including the humpback whale. The park is divided into different zones, with differing levels of protection, which are subject to change as management plans evolve. The initial plan included several different zones, including a whale sanctuary zone of approximately , two sanctuary zones comprising about 20% of the marine park area around Champagny Islands and Montgomery Reef, a

pearling industry Cultured pearls are formed within a cultured pearl sac with human intervention in the interior of productive living molluscs in a variety of conditions depending upon the mollusc and the goals. Just as the same as natural pearls, cultured pearls ...

zone, and general use zones. Another 48% of the park was closed to

trawling Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

and 23% of the park closed to

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

. The 2013–2023 management plan maintained the zones specified by the '' Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' (the "CALM Act"): sanctuary, recreation, special purpose or general use zones. The marine park recognises two broad themes: #

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

- comprising both

geomorphic Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...

habitat (such as rocky shores and platforms) and biological habitat (such as

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

) # Species of special conservation interest - comprising those species which are listed as having special conservation status (such as humpback whales) as well as species which are extracted for human use (such as targeted finfish). Access to the park is usually via one of the many cruise vessels that operate between Broome, Wyndham, Darwin and

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Marine parks established in 2020

An 2016 management plan saw this park, along with the

Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls Marine Park The Horizontal Falls, or Horizontal Waterfalls, nicknamed the "Horries" and known as Garaanngaddim by the local Indigenous people, are an unusual natural phenomenon on the coast of the Kimberley region in Western Australia, where tidal flows ca ...

and the

make up part of what was to be named the Great Kimberley Marine Park, covering about of coastal waters from west of Ganbadba (Talbot Bay) to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

border. In 2020, a new management plan was released, titled ''Lalang-gaddam Marine Park: Amended joint management plan for the Lalang-garram / Camden Sound, Lalang-garram / Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram marine parks and indicative joint management plan for the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park''. It was published ahead of the gazettal of the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park under the ''CALM Act'' as a Class A reserve. Under the new arrangements, the zoning of the Camden Sound park would not change, but the plan is now to amalgamate the four marine parks (

North Lalang-garram Marine Park North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

and the new Maiyalam Marine Park) to form the Lalang-gaddam Marine Park, all in the sea country of the Dambeemangarddee people. This plan will be amended by another 10-year final joint management plan. The new Maiyalam Marine Park will create add to the Kimberley marine reserves. The larger plan is to create a total of of new

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and marine reserves in Western Australia. The new spelling, "Lalang-gaddam", reflects the correct pronunciation of the word, and "Maiyalam" means "between islands", or "a gap through". The new Maiyalam Marine Park covers an area off the north-western coast of

and around

Macleay Island Macleay Island is an island in Moreton Bay, South East Queensland, Australia. The island constitutes a town and locality within the City of Redland. In the , the locality of Macleay Island had a population of 2,681 people. Geography Maclea ...

. The new Lalang-gaddam Marine Park borders the proposed

Mayala Marine Park The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine ...

to the south-west (covering the

), and the

(

waters) to the north-east. The land and sea border to the south abut

Bardi Jawi The Bardi people, also spelt Baada or Baardi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people, living north of Broome and inhabiting parts of the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are ethnically clo ...

land and a proposed Bardi Jawi Marine Park. Maps show the extent of the various marine parks, native title determinations, zones within the areas, etc. Details such as port areas are outlined in the plan. An

Indigenous land use agreement Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

(ILUA) already covers the Lalang-garram/ Camden Sound, Lalang-garram/ Horizontal Falls and North Lalang-garram marine parks, but an additional ILUA will be needed to allow the creation of the proposed Maiyalam Marine Park in accordance with the ''

Native Title Act 1993 The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land managemen ...

''. Much of Collier Bay will remain a general use zone, but the

Walcott Inlet Walcott Inlet is an estuary located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It flows into Collier Bay, in the Indian Ocean, via a narrow gap known as Yule Entrance. The inlet was named on 19 June 1865 by Trevarton Charles Sholl after ...

will be zoned as sanctuary.

References

{{coord, 15, 26, 47, S, 124, 25, 5, E, display=title, region:AU_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki, name=Camden Sound Bays of Western Australia Sounds of Western Australia Marine parks of Australia Kimberley coastline of Western Australia