Bioregional Zoning Inventory (based on draft marine park zoning for public review, 2012)

This document has been designed to help you understand what the proposed marine park zoning would conserve and protect in the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

What is a bioregion? In order to manage large related areas of ’s marine environment as a whole, scientists have divided our waters into different areas known as bioregions. Australia has 60 marine bioregions, eight of which are found in (Figure 1).

A bioregion is an area of similar habitat grouped together according to their natural biological and physical characteristics.

Bioregions provide a framework for marine conservation planning and ecologically sustainable management of marine and coastal resources based on biodiversity (the variety of life found in a given area).

The Gulf St Vincent bioregion’s main features are:

• second largest bioregion in SA; • a confined inverse estuary; • a generally low wave energy coastline; • extensive mangrove forests with intertidal mudflats and saltmarsh communities; and • extensive seagrass beds, algal dominated reefs and deep water sponge gardens.

Gulf St Vincent bioregion overview The Gulf St Vincent bioregion covers about 13,184 km², extending from West Cape to Cape Borda () and Cape Willoughby to Port Elliot (Figure 2). The marine parks network covers about 5,731 km² or 44% of the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

Marine parks in the Gulf St Vincent bioregion include:

• Southern Marine Park (MP12) • Lower Yorke Peninsula Marine Park (MP13) • Upper Gulf St Vincent Marine Park (MP14) • Encounter Marine Park (MP15) • Western Kangaroo Island Marine Park (MP16)

The draft highly protected zones, sanctuary (SZ) and restricted access zones (RAZ), cover about 711 km² or 6% of the bioregion. Habitat protection zones (HPZ) make up the largest zoning type covering 4006 km² or 30% of the bioregion with the remainder comprised of general managed use zones (GMUZ). These zones protect a wide range of habitats, and species that occur within them, from the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 1 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Figure 1: Map of Gulf St Vincent Bioregion within State waters.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 2 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Figure 2: Marine Park Draft Zoning or the Gulf St Vincent Bioregion.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 3 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Sanctuary zones and restricted access zones area statistics This section provides information on the area of proposed highly protected zones within the local marine parks and the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

Five marine parks, 18 sanctuary zones and 2 restricted access zones occur with the GSV bioregion. Table 1 shows the number and area of highly protected zones (SZ & RAZ) within the bioregion. These sanctuary zones protect areas such as the Orcades Bank which is a whiting spawning area, the estuary in Coobowie Inlet and Wetlands of National Importance in upper Gulf St Vincent.

Table 1: Area (km2) and percent (%) of highly protected zones in the Gulf St Vincent Bioregion.

Contribution (%) of the Area of zone in individual SZ/RAZ to the SZ or RAZ bioregion total SZ/RAZ for the Marine Park SZ and RAZ name code (km2) bioregion

Chinamans Hat SZ‐1 81 11

Southern Spencer Gulf* Orcades Bank SZ‐2 63 9

Port Davenport SZ‐1 71 10

Lower Yorke Peninsula Coobowie Inlet SZ‐2 1 <1

Defence Zone RAZ‐ 1 87 12 Clinton Wetlands SZ‐1 61 9 Seagrass of UGSV SZ‐2 23 3 Offshore Ardrossan SZ‐3 37 5 Upper Gulf St Vincent Light River Delta SZ‐4 SZ‐4 8 1 West Island CP RAZ‐ 4 <1 <1 Noarlunga Reef SZ‐2 7 1 Aldinga Reef SZ‐3 22 3 Carrickalinga Cliffs SZ‐4 8 1 Rapid Head SZ‐5 55 8 Encounter SZ‐6 9 1 Bay of Shoals SZ‐8 26 4 SZ‐9 15 2 Sponge Gardens SZ‐10 60 8

Encounter* The Pages Islands SZ‐11 39 6 Western Kangaroo Island* Cape Borda SZ‐1 37 5

Total 711 100

* Some sanctuary zones in these marine parks overlap neighbouring bioregions.

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 4 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Environmental values This section describes the type of seabed and shoreline habitats found within highly protected areas of the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

Many of the highly valued seabed and shoreline habitats of the bioregion are protected within sanctuary zones. Table 2 shows that 5 seabed and 11 shoreline habitats are known to exist within the GSV bioregion and examples of all of these are included in the marine parks. Fifteen of these are included in the highly protected zones.

The ‘other’ category combines habitats occurring in relatively small proportions within the bioregion such as invertebrate communities, deep sea sponges and macroalgae on sand.

Table 2: Presence and absence of seabed habitats and shoreline types in the highly protected zones.

Environmental Values In Marine In Parks MP 12 MP 13 MP14 MP15 MP16 Seabed Bioregion Parks SZ & RAZ SZ & SZ SZ & SZ & SZ habitats/systems RAZ RAZ RAZ Bare sand Reef Seagrass Unmapped Other Shoreline habitats/systems Bedrock platform Boulder beach Cliff Coarse sand beach Fine‐medium sand beach Mangrove Saltmarsh Seagrass Mixed beach Mudflats and sandflats Pebble cobble beach KEY Not present Present and included Present but not included

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 5 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Habitat pie charts The pie charts show how the habitats within the Gulf St Vincent bioregion are proportionally represented in the marine parks (MP) and the highly protected zones (SZ and RAZ). If the habitats are included in the marine parks and the SZ in the same proportions that they occur in the bioregion, the number and sizes of the pie slices will look the same.

Seabed habitats For the Gulf St Vincent Bioregion the seabed habitats in the SZ/RAZ are represented differently to those in the marine parks and the bioregion (Figure 3). The main difference is that there is a smaller representation of unmapped seafloor in the SZ/RAZ and a proportionally greater representation of seagrass.

Bioregion MP SZ/RAZ

Other Reef Sand Seagrass Unmapped

Figure 3: Pie charts showing the proportional representation of seabed habitats for the Gulf St Vincent bioregion within state waters, marine parks (MP), sanctuary zones (SZ) and restricted access zones (RAZ).

Shoreline type The shoreline types from table 2 have been condensed into three broad categories in these pie charts where sand includes sandy beaches, rock includes cliffs and intertidal reef, and mud includes saltmarsh and mangroves. For the Gulf St Vincent Bioregion the shoreline types are represented in different proportions for the SZ/RAZ compared to the marine parks and the bioregion (Figure 4). Intertidal mud is represented in greater proportions in the SZ/RAZ with less proportions of representation for both sand and rock than in the bioregion.

Bioregion MP SZ/RAZ

Sand Rock Intertidal Mud

Figure 4: Proportional representation of shoreline types for Gulf St Vincent bioregion, marine parks (MP), sanctuary zones (SZ) and restricted access zones (RAZ).

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 6 Gulf St Vincent Bioregion – Marine Parks 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16

Features and species of ecological importance This section lists features, such as estuaries, and species, such as sea lions, of ecological importance from the Gulf St Vincent bioregion that are protected within the marine parks.

Gulf St Vincent has many features of ecological importance. Examples include: • coastal wader birds; • estuaries; • Australian sea lions; and • seadragons.

Fifteen ecologically important features have been included within the highly protected zones within the marine parks of the GSV bioregion (Table 3).

Table 3: Availability and inclusion of features of ecological importance in sanctuary and restricted access zones in the Gulf St Vincent bioregion.

MP In Gulf St Marine MP 12 MP MP 14 15 Vincent Marine Parks SZ SZ & 13 SZ & SZ & MP Ecological Feature Bioregion Parks &RAZ RAZ SZ RAZ* RAZ 16 SZ Estuaries 65 50 8 0 2 2 3 1 Offshore Islands 19 19 7 4 0 3 New Zealand fur seal (haulout) 14 12 3 0 2 1 New Zealand fur seal (breeding) 1 1 1 1 Australian fur seal (haulout) 1 1 1 1 (breeding) 2 2 1 1 Australian sea lion (haulout) 6 6 2 1 0 1 Site attached reef fish 787 666 273 9 249 15 COSEMA (endangered macroalgae) 101 81 16 0 0 0 16 Seabirds 73 50 20 3 0 0 16 1 Raptors 35 29 6 0 3 3 Coastal WADER BIRD SITES (migrant and resident) 4491 2935 1735 3 19 1111 585 Seadragons 745 586 16 3 0 13 Potential pipefish habitat (km2) 1943 994 184 0 7 140 37 Sponge gardens (km2) 93 93 24 24

KEY Not present Present and included Present but not included

* includes Defence Prohibited Area

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES 7