Lord Howe Island Marine Park

The marine park was declared on 26 February 1999 under the Marine Parks Act 1997, with a zoning plan commencing on 1 December 2004 to protect the important natural and cultural values of the park while providing a range of sustainable uses.[2] Due to its isolated geographic location, small size and limited access, there are a number of threats to biodiversity that require management.[3] The marine park status helps protect marine biodiversity from fishing pressure and population pressure.

A range of scientific, social, cultural and economic information was collated to design the zoning plan.[2] In August 2001 an Issues Paper was released for public comment and submissions reviewed.[4] In June 2002, a draft zoning plan document was established outlining a number of options for zoning, incorporating the submissions gained through the public comment period, advice taken from the Lord Howe Island Marine Park Advisory Committee and a review of relevant information.[2] This plan was released for public comment in December 2003 with a finalised zoning plan and implementation of marine park zones commencing on 1 December 2004.[2] The waters from 3–12 nautical miles were declared a federal marine park on 21 June 2000, see Lord Howe Island Marine Park (Commonwealth waters).

In 1999, the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) was enacted. The EPBC Act provides guidance about regional biodiversity conservation priorities through the implementation of the marine bioregional planning process. This process conserves marine biodiversity by considering the whole ecosystem a species is in and how different species interact in the marine environment. This process identified the regional conservation priorities in a number of different marine regions and identified the marine reserves to be added to Australia's National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Lord Howe Island Marine park was identified as requiring protection.

To protect the various marine conservation values associated with the waters around Lord Howe Island, the New South Wales government proclaimed the Lord Howe Island Marine Park in 1999. However, it wasn't until 2004 that a zoning scheme came into force due to lengthy negotiations with stakeholders.[5] This zoning scheme partitioned the coastal waters of Lord Howe Island to permit different human uses, in order to minimise the threat to marine conservation values.[5]

The objectives of the zoning plan under the Marine Parks Act 1997 include: 1) to conserve marine biological diversity and marine habitats, 2) to maintain ecological processes, 3) where consistent with the preceding, to provide for ecologically sustainable use of fish and marine vegetation, and 4) to provide opportunities for public appreciation, understanding and enjoyment.

The zoning plan for the Lord Howe Island Marine Park provides various levels of biodiversity protection, regulating activities according to zones. 73.2% of the Marine Park, known as Habitat Protection Zones, allows most forms of fishing: charter boat and recreational, but excludes spearfishing.[5] The other 26.8% of the Marine Park are zoned as seven Sanctuary Zones, where fishing, anchoring and other harmful human activities are excluded.[5] While 0.004% (1.7ha) of the marine park is considered a Special Purpose Zone used for special management needs, specifically to allow limited fish feeding.[2] Lord Howe Island Marine park does not contain any General Use zones, like other Marine Parks in New South Wales.[2] The zoning plan also contains regulations on specific activities and provides additional protection on species of particular importance.[2]

The zoning plan gives protection to important natural and cultural values of the marine park, while allowing sustainable use including swimming, surfing, charter and recreational fishing, scuba diving, sailing, boating and research.[2] Visitor numbers are restricted on the island to control impacts to the Marine Park.

Lord Howe Island is regarded as having high geological, geomorphological and geodiversity values, many of which extend to the habitats of the marine park.[7] Lord Howe Island is situated at the southernmost limit of coral reef formation, receiving both tropical and temperate open ocean carbon environments. Slowly, over time Lord Howe Island is moving into reef forming seas due to the northward migration of Australia's tectonic plate, which is moving 5–6 cm north per year.[8]

A white sedimentary rock known as calcarenite is locally important within the marine park as it makes up the central and northern regions of the island to below sea level in several places.[2] Calcarenite is formed through the cementing of calcareous algae, coral fragments and sand. Dating has indicated that calcarenite was deposited in the past 350,000 years during the Pleistocene period.[9]

The beach and shallow-water calcarenites indicate a sea level around 2–3 m above the present level during the last interglacial period (130,000-70,000 years ago, Pleistocene). Little evidence of reefs during this time can be seen as they may have occupied locations similar to those of modern reefs or were largely destroyed following emergence once the sea level fell.[10]

The fringing reef on the windward western coastline of Lord Howe Island absorbs wave energy and acts as a breakwater preventing storm surges from eroding the low lying central region of the island.[11] The sheltered lagoon contains a number of different reef habitats, dominated by sand, lagoonal corals, gravel sheets, algal flats and patch reefs.[12]

The high conservation significance of Lord Howe Island and its waters is recognised by its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982. Conservation values relating to the marine park include the unique combination of tropical and temperature reef taxa, both flora and fauna.[5] These unique taxa include a number of species at the limits of their distribution, reflecting the extreme latitude of the coral reef ecosystem, making Lord Howe Island Marine Park the southernmost true coral reef in the world.[5]

Lord Howe Island Marine Park is also home to a high diversity of marine benthic algae, fishes and marine invertebrates and is associated with high levels of endemicity.[5] Lord Howe Island was only discovered by humans in 1778, consequently the original flora and fauna has remained relatively untouched.

Three distinct marine habitat community types have been identified within the Marine Park: coral reefs, macroalgal beds, and offshore/open coast communities.[5] The distribution of these depends on wave exposure.[5] The Lord Howe Island Group supports more than 305 benthic algae species, including 47 endemic species.[10] Hence, approximately 15% of the benthic algal species are endemic to the Lord Howe Island Marine Park.[5] Also, two species of non-endemic sea grasses are found within the marine park: Eelgrass, Zostera muelleri subsp capricorni and Paddleweed, Halophila ovalis.[13]

Providence Petrel, a Lord Howe Island seabird listed as Vulnerable under the NSW TSC Act

The marine life comprise both subtropical and temperate species due to its location and influence of the southerly flowing East Australian Current (EAC).[1] As a consequence, the waters surrounding Lord Howe Island show rich and unique biodiversity. An extensive barrier coral reef protects a broad sheltered lagoon and sandy beach on the western side of the island, while fringing reef occurs immediately offshore of the beaches on the eastern side.

The Lord Howe Island Group supports a diverse inshore fish fauna with greater than 400 species recorded.[10] 10% of the marine inshore fish species are known to be endemic, meaning they are only found at Lord Howe Island, while 8% of the 110 species of echinoderms are also endemic.[5] A wide variety of seabirds roost and nest on the island but feed on schools of fish and squid. This diversity reflects the mixing of tropical species with temperate species and the range of marine environments present.[10]

Lord Howe Island has 37 km of shoreline or littoral zone, with only eight kilometres readily accessible. This eight kilometres has been most heavily impacted as most of the forest has been cleared to the edge of the beach, removing the buffer to strong prevalent winds, impacting the forest behind.[10]

View of the lagoon from Mount Eliza. The lagoon forms the majority of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park

The lagoon is six kilometres long and 1.5 km wide and contains the largest of Lord Howe Island's coral reef system, assessed as having World Heritage values.[10] The main identified threats to the marine environment are the impact of water quality welling up in the lagoon from groundwater, the potential changes of turbidity affecting the clarity of water in the lagoon, the impact from anchor damage (outside as well as inside the lagoon), overfishing particularly of the slower growing fish species which inhabit the drop-off, and dramatic water temperature changes causing coral bleaching and death of other marine species.[10]