__NOTOC__ Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park (formerly Western Kangaroo Island 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 conse ...

located 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 south-west of

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

and ranging in depth from to . It was gazetted in November 2012. It was renamed on 11 October 2017. It is part of a group of

Australian marine parks 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 ...

managed by the

Department of the Environment and Energy The Department of the Environment and Energy (DEE) was an Australian government department in existence between 2016 and 2020. The department was responsible for matters including environment protection and conservation of biodiversity as well ...

known as the South-west Marine Parks Network. It adjoins the

Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park __NOTOC__ Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park (formerly Western Kangaroo Island Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is a marine protected area located south of South Australia in waters within the Australian Exclusive economic zone to the south-west ...

managed by the Government of South Australia which it both bounds on its north-west side and fully encloses the portion of the state marine park surrounding Lipson Reef near its eastern extent. 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 the

bioregion A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...

known as the "Spencer Gulf Shelf Province", two "key ecological features" consisting of firstly of a feature known as the "Kangaroo Island Pool" and the associated "Eyre Peninsula upwelling" both notable for their "high productivity, breeding and feeding aggregations" and secondly of a feature described as "Ancient coastline" within a depth range of and as being of "high productivity", a calving area for southern right whale and feeding areas for the following species - Australian sea lion,

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 ...

Caspian tern The Caspian tern (''Hydroprogne caspia'') is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no accepted subspecies. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ' ...

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 Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocean ...

, short-tailed shearwater and sperm whale. The marine park consists of two zones - a marine national park zone (

IUCN Category II 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 ...

) with an area of and a special purpose zone ( IUCN Category VI) with an area of . South-west Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network map

References

External links

Official webpageWebpage for the Western Kangaroo Island Commonwealth Marine Reserve on the Protected Planet website
{{Protected areas managed by the Australian Government , state=collapsed IUCN Category II IUCN Category VI Australian marine parks Protected areas established in 2012 2012 establishments in Australia

See also

References

External links