The Dampier Marine Park (formerly known as the Dampier Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is an
Australian marine park offshore of
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
, north-east of
Karratha. The marine park covers an area of and is assigned
IUCN category VI. It is one of the 13 parks managed under the
North-west Marine Parks Network.
Conservation values
Species and habitat
*Foraging areas adjacent to important breeding areas for migratory seabirds.
*Foraging areas adjacent to important nesting sites for marine turtles.
*Includes part of the migratory pathway of the protected
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...
.
*The reserve provides a high level of protection for offshore shelf habitats adjacent to the
Dampier Archipelago.
Bioregions and ecology
*The reserve provides high level protection for the shallow shelf with depths ranging from 15 metres to 70 metres.
*Examples of the communities and seafloor habitats of the Northwest Shelf Province
provincial bioregion as well as the Pilbara (nearshore) and Pilbara (offshore) meso-scale bioregions.
[
]
History
The marine park was proclaimed under the EPBC Act on 14 December 2013 and renamed Dampier Marine Park on 9 October 2017.[ The management plan and protection measures of the marine park came into effect for the first time on 1 July 2018.
]
Summary of protection zones
The Dampier Marine Park has been assigned 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 part ...
VI. However, within the marine park there are three protection zones, each zone has an IUCN category and related rules for managing activities to ensure the protection of marine habitats and species.[
The following table is a summary of the zoning rules within the Dampier Marine Park:][
]
See also
* Protected areas managed by the Australian government
References
External links
North-west Marine Parks Network - Parks Australia
North-west Marine Parks Network - environment.gov.au (outdated)
{{Protected areas managed by the Australian Government , state=collapsed
Australian marine parks