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Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters)

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Overview

Interim management arrangements
The management plan for the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters) was prepared in 2002 under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This management plan expired on 24 September 2009 and interim management arrangements will apply until the management plan for a new representative marine reserve network in the east region is in place.

Summary

Lying at 31°30'S latitude, some 700 km north-east of Sydney, Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid are part of a chain of seamounts that are the remnants of a once-extensive volcanic system active in the late Miocene.

The island is part of the State of New South Wales (NSW) and is surrounded by State waters (out to 3 nautical miles) and Commonwealth waters out to a distance of 200 nautical miles. The State waters around Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid comprise the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (State Waters), and the Commonwealth waters between 3 nm and 12 nm around Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid form the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters). The combined area includes most of the marine environs of the World Heritage Property and forms the largest marine protected area off the NSW coast.

The perimeter of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters) roughly corresponds to the 1800-metre depth contour that follows the base of the seamounts that underlie the Island and Ball's Pyramid. The sea area of the Park is estimated to be 300,510 hectares and includes the sea-bed to a depth of 100 metres.

Within the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth Waters), the park is divided into three zones

• a Habitat Protection Zone assigned to IUCN category IV - habitat species management area, and
• two Sanctuary Zones assigned to IUCN category Ia - strict nature reserve.

One Sanctuary Zone extends to the east of Lord Howe Island southwards from latitude 31°30' 40'' S, in line with Malabar Point at the northern tip of the Island, to a latitude 31° 35''50'S in line with King Point.

The other Sanctuary Zone lies to the south of Ball's Pyramid in line with the latitude 31°46'' 50'S that lies approximately 500m north of South-west Rock, and extends to the outer boundary of the Park.

History

Lord Howe Island, DEWHA

It is believed that Europeans discovered Lord Howe Island when the island was sighted in 1788 from the British colonial naval vessel HMS Supply, en route from Sydney to the penal colony on Norfolk Island. The first landing was made two months later on the return voyage to Sydney.

By the 1830s there was a small permanent settlement in the lowland area of the main island. The settlers made a living by hunting and fishing, and by growing vegetables, fruit and meat for trade with passing whaling ships. While the marine environment has remained central to the traditions and lifestyle of the Island community to the present day, structures and places of cultural significance relate mainly to the residences, outhouses, wells and gardens of the Island settlement.

A number of historic shipwrecks are believed to be found in either the State or Commonwealth sections of the Park. Of the 12 shipwrecks believed to be in the Lord Howe area, half are believed to have been lost in Commonwealth Park. These include the Wolf, wrecked in 1837, the Zeno, wrecked in 1895, Maelgyn, lost in 1907, and the Laura, wrecked in 1913. No specific positions are available for these wrecks as they have not yet been accurately located. Seabed habitat mapping research may be able to detect the presence of these shipwrecks. For more information visit the National Shipwreck Database.

Special features

Due to its distance from any large landmass, the Island's marine ecosystem is largely in an undisturbed, natural state. The alternating influences of warm and cool currents create a transition zone between temperate and tropical regions that contributes to an unusual mix of tropical, sub-tropical and temperate marine fauna and flora and a high level of endemism.

In 1982 the significance of Lord Howe Island and its marine environment was recognised by their addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Some of the World Heritage values of the Lord Howe Island group specific to the marine environment include:

• the unusual combination of tropical and temperate marine flora and fauna, including many species living at their distributional limits, reflecting the extreme latitude of the coral reef ecosystems which comprise the southernmost true coral reef in the world
• the diversity of marine benthic algae species, including at least 235 species of which 12 per cent are endemic
• the diversity of marine fish species, including at least 500 species of which 400 are inshore species and 15 are endemic
• the diversity of marine invertebrate species, including more than 83 species of corals and 65 species of echinoderms of which 70 per cent are tropical, 24 per cent are temperate and 6 per cent are endemic.

Some species living on the underwater seamounts appear to be relicts of groups believed to have disappeared in the Mesozoic age (225-65 million years ago). Studies have revealed that these seamounts appear to be isolated marine systems. Most species do not travel between the seamounts and this has led to highly localised species distributions that are exceptional for the deep sea.

Black cod (Epinephilus damelii) is found in the Park. Once common along the New South Wales (NSW) coast, the black cod is now extremely rare and is protected from fishing and other activities under New South Wales legislation.

The deep-water pelagics known through fishing activities include marlin (blue and striped), sharks (Galapagos, whalers, some tigers, whites and makos), sailfish, dolphin fish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, trevally, bonito, yellow-tail kingfish and spangled emperor fish

The Lord Howe Island group is a major seabird breeding area. The largest numbers are present in spring and summer, but there is activity all year round. Fourteen species of seabirds breed on the islands, including

• masked boobys
• grey ternlets
• sooty terns
• white terns
• common noddys
• black noddys
• red-tailed tropic birds
• little shearwaters
• wedge-tailed shearwaters
• flesh-footed shearwaters
• black-winged petrels
• whitebellied storm petrels
• Kermadec petrels
• Providence petrels.

Balls Pyramid is the only known Australian breeding ground of the Kermadec petrel.