Marine Bioregional Planning in the South-east
The area
The South-east Marine Region covers more than 1.6 million square kilometres of water off Victoria, Tasmania (including Macquarie Island), southern New South Wales around the town of Bermagui, and eastern South Australia from the South Australian/Victorian border to Victor Harbor.
Map of the South-east Marine Region
Source: ERIN
Bioregions
The Region is divided into 11 provincial bioregional units under the Integrated Coastal and Marine Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRAv.4).
Ecological features
The area is recognised as having global significance for marine biodiversity and the occurrence of large numbers of endemic organisms (an estimated 60% of the marine species found in temperate Australia are believed to be unique to the area).
The Region is dominated by two major ocean currents; the East Australian Current (EAC) coming from the north-east and the Leeuwin Current coming from the northwest.
Oceans in the Region are relatively low in nutrients and primary productivity. Exceptions to these lower nutrient conditions occur where water bodies converge and mix to create “hot spots” of primary productivity. These seasonal and transient upwellings are significant features of the Region.
Seamounts are key geological features in the Region, and these interact with ocean currents. Detritus, nutrients and organisms are transported to the seamounts by deep water currents. This coupled with low sedimentation rates and other sources of food from the rain of detritus falling from the productive water layers at the top of the seamounts, support large aggregations of benthic fish such as oreos and orange roughy.
Large predators (e.g. whales, seals, sharks and tunas) are also common in the Region, although they were considerably more abundant before European colonisation of the Australian continent. Many of these larger predators migrate through the Region playing a role in exporting and importing energy into and out of the Region.
More information
To build an understanding of this complex Region, information on ecosystems and human activities was gathered during the previous planning process conducted in the Region, and published in a series of assessments covering both State and Commonwealth waters across six themes. More information about the South-east Regional Marine Plan.
Marine Protected Areas in the South-east
A key component of the previous planning process was the development of a network of Marine Protected Areas MPAs) within the region. Two candidate MPAs - the Murray and Zeehan MPAs - were announced as part of the South-east Regional Marine Plan in May 2004. A further 11 MPAs were announced with the release of the full network of South-east Marine Protected Areas in early 2006.
Future Planning
Building on the work done in the South-east Region under the previous planning process, a South-east Bioregional Marine Plan will be developed under the Marine Bioregional Planning Program, which is due to be completed by 2010. This will bring regional marine planning under the EPBC Act and will mean that the better and more accessible information generated through planning will directly inform the way marine uses are regulated for environmental protection. Decisions will be made more consistently and industry will know in advance what the key conservation values are in each bioregion and what the Government's conservation priorities are.
See also
Key
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