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Map of South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves

About the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network

Australia's South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network is the first temperate deep sea network of marine reserves in the world. This large network covering 226,458 square kilometres, covers representative examples of the diverse seafloor features and associated habitats found in the South-east Marine Region. The South-east Marine Region stretches from the far south coast of New South Wales, around Tasmania and Victoria and west to Kangaroo Island off South Australia.

The reserves include striking features such as underwater canyons and mountains, and the diverse marine life associated with them, some of which is new to science and found nowhere else in the world.

The network will include 13 new Commonwealth Marine Reserves and the Macquarie Island Commonwealth Marine Reserve. The new reserves are:

Macquarie Island seals

1. Apollo Commonwealth Marine Reserve
2. Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve
3. Boags Commonwealth Marine Reserve
4. East Gippsland Commonwealth Marine Reserve
5. Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve
6. Franklin Commonwealth Marine Reserve
7. Freycinet Commonwealth Marine Reserve
8. Huon Commonwealth Marine Reserve (incorporating the Tasmanian Seamounts Marine Reserve)
9. Murray Commonwealth Marine Reserve
10. Nelson Commonwealth Marine Reserve
11. South Tasman Rise Commonwealth Marine Reserve
12. Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve
13. Zeehan Commonwealth Marine Reserve

National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas (NRSMPA)

The South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network has been designed to contribute to the National Representative system of marine protected areas (NRSMPA). Australia's governments are working together to set up a national system of protected areas throughout our entire marine zone.

The aim of NRSMPA is to protect areas which represent all of our major ecological regions and the communities of plants and animals they contain. This will help to conserve important habitats and representative samples of our marine life for present and future generations. All State and Commonwealth Marine Protected Area's contribute to the National System. The Australian Government made an international commitment to establish a representative network of marine reserves by 2012. This commitment was made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. Read more about NRSMPA