Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park
Marine protected area south-west of Kangaroo Island in Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park (formerly Western Kangaroo Island Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is a marine protected area located south of South Australia in waters within the Australian Exclusive economic zone to the south-west of Kangaroo Island and ranging in depth from 15 metres (49 feet) to 165 metres (541 feet).[3]
| Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park | |
|---|---|
 Interactive map of Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park | |
| Location | Australia |
| Nearest city | Kingscote, South Australia |
| Coordinates | 35°45′52.56″S 136°17′3.84″E |
| Area | 2,335.31 km2 (901.67 sq mi)[1] |
| Established | 8 December 2012[2] |
| Governing body | Director of National Parks |
| Website | Official website |
It was gazetted in November 2012.[2] It was renamed on 11 October 2017.[4]
It is part of a group of Australian marine parks managed by the Department of the Environment and Energy known as the South-west Marine Parks Network. It adjoins the Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park managed by the Government of South Australia which it both bounds on its north-west side and fully encloses the portion of the state marine park surrounding Lipson Reef near its eastern extent.[5][3]
The marine park includes ecosystems representative of the bioregion known as the "Spencer Gulf Shelf Province", two "key ecological features" consisting of firstly of a feature known as the "Kangaroo Island Pool" and the associated "Eyre Peninsula upwelling" both notable for their "high productivity, breeding and feeding aggregations" and secondly of a feature described as "ancient coastline" within a depth range of 90–120 metres (300–390 ft) and as being of "high productivity", a calving area for southern right whale and feeding areas for the Australian sea lion, blue whale, Caspian tern, great white shark, short-tailed shearwater and sperm whale.[3]
The marine park consists of two zones - a marine national park zone (IUCN Category II) with an area of 120 square kilometres (46 square miles) and a special purpose zone (IUCN Category VI) with an area of 2,215 square kilometres (855 square miles).[1][3]