Huon Commonwealth Marine Reserve is a 9,991 km²

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's 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 ...

within

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n waters. The former Tasmanian Seamounts Marine Reserve created in 1999 was incorporated into the Huon reserve 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 th ...

. Huon reserve contains a cluster of approximately 70

seamounts A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...

peaking to above the sea floor. They appear as cone-shaped submerged mountains, which provide a range of depths for a diversity of plants and animals. The reserve is a foraging area for

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...

s and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s and a spawning or nursery area for important commercial fish, including

ocean perch ''Sebastes norvegicus'', the rose fish, rock fish, ocean perch, Atlantic redfish, Norway haddock, golden redfish, pinkbelly rosefish, Norway seaperch, Scottish seaperch or bergylt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfami ...

and blue warehou.

Protection

A majority of the Huon marine reserve area 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 part ...

VI and zoned as 'Multiple Use'. A smaller section of 'Habitat Protection Zone' in the west of the reserve protects the unique and vulnerable

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

communities of the reserve's seamounts.

Notes

References

External links

Huon 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 established in 1999 1999 establishments in Australia

Protection

See also

Notes

References

External links