The Lord Howe Marine Park (formerly known as the Lord Howe Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is an Australian marine park located about 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

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

. The marine park covers an area of , encompassing the smaller

Lord Howe Island Marine Park Lord Howe Island Marine Park is the site of Australia's and the world's most southern coral reef ecosystem. The island is 10 km in length, 2 km wide and consists of a large lagoonal reef system along its leeward side, with 28 small isl ...

, and is assigned IUCN category IV. It is one of 8 parks managed under the Temperate East Marine Parks Network.

Conservation values

Species and habitat

*Biologically important areas for 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 ...

s and a number of migratory seabirds. *A major seabird breeding area, with 14 species found on the islands including masked

booby A booby is a seabird in the genus ''Sula'', part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets (''Morus''), which were formerly included in ''Sula''. Systematics and evolution The genus ''Sula'' was introduced by the Frenc ...

s, grey ternlets,

red-tailed tropicbird The red-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon rubricauda'') is a seabird native to tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird (Phaethontidae), it was described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783. Superfic ...

black-winged petrel The black-winged petrel (''Pterodroma nigripennis'') is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It breeds on a number of oceanic islands in the tropical and subtropical East Pacific Ocean and spends the rest of the year at sea. Descr ...

s and

Kermadec petrel The Kermadec petrel (''Pterodroma neglecta'') is a species of gadfly petrel in the family Procellariidae. It is 38 cm long with a wingspan of 100 cm. It is polymorphic, with light, dark and intermediate morphs known. It eats squid, fis ...

s *Key location for black cod *Due to the convergence of warmer northern tropical and cooler southern temperate waters in the area, many species found in the reserve are at the northern or southern extent of their range.

Bioregions and ecology

*Examples of the ecosystems of the Lord Howe Province and the Tasman Basin Province provincial bioregion. *Represents seafloor features including: basin, plateau, saddle, seamount/guyot and deep ocean valley *

Lord Howe seamount chain The Lord Howe Seamount Chain formed during the Miocene. It features many coral-capped guyots and is one of the two parallel seamount chains alongside the east coast of Australia; the Lord Howe and Tasmantid seamount chains both run north-south t ...

Elizabeth Reef Elizabeth Reef, located at is a coral reef in the Coral Sea. The reef is separated by a deep oceanic pass, some 47 km wide, from nearby Middleton Reef, both of which are part of the underwater plateau known as the Lord Howe Rise. It i ...

Middleton Reef Middleton Reef is a coral reef in the Coral Sea. It is separated by a deep oceanic pass some 47 km wide from nearby Elizabeth Reef, forming part of the Lord Howe Rise underwater plateau. It is around 230 km from Lord Howe Island and 5 ...

and the

Tasman Front The Tasman Front is a relatively warm water east-flowing surface current and thermal boundary that separates the Coral Sea to the north and the Tasman Sea to the south. Naming The name was proposed by Denham and Crook in 1976, to describe a the ...

and eddy field (areas of high productivity; aggregations of marine life; biodiversity and endemism).

History

The marine park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Lord Howe Marine Park on 9 October 2017. The management plan and protection measures of the marine park came into effect for the first time on 1 July 2018.

Former reserves

The Lord Howe Marine Park includes areas of the former

Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth waters) Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth waters) is a former marine protected area managed by the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, protecting the waters surrounding Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's ...

(proclaimed 2000) and Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Nature Reserve (proclaimed 1987).

Summary of protection zones

The Lord Howe 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 par ...

IV. However, within the marine park there are five protection zones, each zone has an IUCN category and related rules for managing activities to ensure the protection of marine habitats and species. The following table is a summary of the zoning rules within the Lord Howe Marine Park:

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 Geography of Lord Howe Island