Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve is a 2,928 km
2 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 ...
within
Australian waters located in
Bass Strait off the coast of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
and near
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
's
Flinders Island
Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colo ...
. The reserve was established in 2007
and is part of the
South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network
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 ...
.
The reserve boundaries enclose
Kent Group National Park and the
Hogan
A hogan ( or ; from Navajo ' ) is the primary, traditional dwelling of the Navajo people. Other traditional structures include the summer shelter, the underground home, and the sweat house. A hogan can be round, cone-shaped, multi-sided, or squ ...
and
Curtis Island groups. Nearby to the north-east is
Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park
The Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park is a protected marine national park located in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The marine park is situated off the southern tip of Wilsons Promontory and extends along the coastline ...
. The reserve represents an area of shallow continental shelf ecosystems in depths of about , the sea floor that it covers formed part of a
land bridge
In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea leve ...
between Tasmania and Victoria during the
last ice age 10 000 years ago.
Protection
The entirety of the Beagle marine reserve is
IUCN protected area category
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 par ...
VI and zoned as 'Multiple Use'.
[
]
Shipwrecks
Located within the Beagle marine reserve are the wrecks of the SS ''Cambridge'' (sunk by German WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
mine) and ''Eliza Davis'', both are east of Wilson's Promontory.[
]
Gallery
See also
*Commonwealth marine reserves
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 ...
*Protected areas of Australia
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...
Notes
References
External links
Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network website
{{Protected areas managed by the Australian Government , state=collapsed
South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network
Protected areas established in 2007
Protected areas of Bass Strait