Murat Marine Park (formerly Murat Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is a
marine protected area
Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conserv ...
located in the
Great Australian Bight south of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
in waters within the
Australian Exclusive economic zone to the west of the island group known as the
Nuyts Archipelago and ranging in depth from to .
It was gazetted in November 2012.
[ It was renamed on 11 October 2017.]
The marine park includes 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 representative of a feature known as the "Great Australian Bight Shelf Transition", two "key ecological features" being "benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
communities’’ and "areas important for small pelagic
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...
fish", and the feeding areas for the following species - Australian sea lion
The Australian sea lion (''Neophoca cinerea''), also known as the Australian sea-lion or Australian sealion, is a species of sea lion that is the only endemic pinniped in Australia. It is currently monotypic in the genus ''Neophoca'', with the e ...
, great 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 ...
, short-tailed shearwater
The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (''Ardenna tenuirostris''; formerly ''Puffinus tenuirostris''), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in A ...
and Caspian tern. It also provides protection for a submerged reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
system known as "Yatala Reef".
It is part of a group of Australian marine parks known as the South-west Marine Parks Network.[
The marine park is classified as an IUCN Category II protected area.][
]
See also
* Protected areas managed by the Australian government
References
External links
Webpage for the Murat Commonwealth Marine Reserve on the Protected Planet website
{{Protected areas managed by the Australian Government , state=collapsed
Australian marine parks
Protected areas established in 2012
2012 establishments in Australia
Great Australian Bight