Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve is a 42,502 km
2 marine protected area 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 located off the coast of
south-west Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
. It extends to the southerly limits of the Australian
exclusive economic zone
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...
in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...
and encompasses the
Tasman Fracture
The Tasman Fracture is a deep Oceanic trench, ocean trench off the South West Tasmania, south west coast of Tasmania. It is located within the boundaries of the Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve which lies within the Tasmania Prov ...
. The reserve was established in 2007
and is part of the
South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network.
The reserve includes a number of undersea peaks rising to less than below the sea surface that provide habitat to deepwater
hard corals. The reserve is also habitat to many
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,
seals and
cetacean
Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...
s, such as
dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
s and
killer whales. The fauna of this reserve includes
subantarctic
The sub-Antarctic zone is a physiographic region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46th parallel south, 46° and 60th parallel south, 60° south of t ...
fishes and seabed invertebrates. Biodiversity within the reserve is influenced by the most easterly extent of the Zeehan Current.
Protection
Most of the Tasman Fracture 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, however there are multiple zoned areas within the reserve with different protection classifications.
[
]
See also
* Commonwealth marine reserves
* Protected areas of Australia
Protected areas of Australia include Commonwealth and off-shore protected areas managed by the Australian government, as well as protected areas within each of the six states of Australia and two self-governing territories, the Australian Capita ...
* Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...
* Port Davey - nearby Tasmanian marine reserve within Southwest National Park
Notes
References
External links
Tasman Fracture 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