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Marine Protected Areas
The Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve is located in the Coral Sea, some 630 kilometres east south-east of Cairns, far north Queensland. The reserve comprises of about 8440 square kilometres of seabed and a horseshoe shaped reef system containing 18 cays.
Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve is only 100km from Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve and together they lie in a remote oceanic environment on the Coral Sea Plateau, which is separated from the Great Barrier Reef by an area of deep water known as the Queensland Trough.
The most recent management plan was prepared in 2001 under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and assigns the reserves to an IUCN category 1a — strict nature reserve. This management plan expires on 4 September 2008 and interim management arrangements will apply until a new management plan is in place.
