Benthic Protection Zone of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park
South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences) for
National Parks and Wildlife South Australia and the Australia Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2003
- 1. Literature review (PDF - 1,485 KB)
- 2. Monitoring sustainable use (PDF - 871 KB)
- 3. Pilot study for performance assessment
Note: Images of the species listed in volume 2 of the 'Pilot study for performance assessment' (Download 3) are not available online due to the file size of the full report (43,000 KB). Contact us for a complete copy.
About the reports
The reports are a first step in assessing the performance of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park, focusing on the Park's Benthic Protection Zone. During 2002 a team of scientists from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) reviewed scientific (Download 1: Literature review) and fisheries management (Download 2: Monitoring sustainable use) publications for the Great Australian Bight region. The team also collected 811 seabed species (mostly sponges, sea squirts and lace corals) from 65 sites in and near the Park (Download 3: Pilot study for performance assessment). The Park appears to be well placed to achieve its aims of representing and protecting the biodiversity of the Great Australian Bight, in that the Benthic Protection Zone is well sited to represent the region's continental shelf seabed communities. In addition, significantly more seabed species were collected inside the Park than outside. The Great Australian Bight has an unusually high preponderance and diversity of suspension feeders (organisms that obtain their food mainly from the water), which may reflect the coarseness of the sediments, the lack of terrestrial runoff, and the high plankton concentrations due to seasonal upwelling. This work was partly funded by the Australian Government's Natural Heritage Trust.
