Cod Grounds Marine Park Explained

Cod Grounds Marine Park
Iucn Category:	II
Coords:	-31.6811°N 152.9103°W
Coords Ref:	^[1]
Location:	Australia
Area Km2:	4
Established:	10 May 2007
Operator:	Parks Australia
Website:	https://parksaustralia.gov.au/marine/parks/temperate-east

The Cod Grounds Marine Park (formerly known as the Cod Grounds Commonwealth Marine Reserve) is an Australian marine park located approximately 5.5 km offshore of New South Wales, near Laurieton. The marine park covers an area of 4km2 and is assigned IUCN category II. It is one of 8 parks managed under the Temperate East Marine Parks Network.^[2]

Conservation values

• Established 2007 to protect a significant aggregation site for the critically endangered east coast population of grey nurse sharks. The area is characterised by a series of underwater pinnacles.
• Biologically important areas for the protected humpback whale, vulnerable white shark and a number of migratory seabirds.
• Examples of the ecosystems of the Central Eastern Shelf Province provincial bioregion and the Manning Shelf meso-scale bioregion.^[3]

History

The Marine Park was originally proclaimed on 10 May 2007 as the Cod Grounds Commonwealth Marine Reserve. The name of the reserve was later changed to Cod Grounds Marine Park on 9 October 2017.^[2]

Summary of protection zones

The Cod Grounds Marine park has been assigned IUCN protected area category II and is wholly zoned as a National Park.^[2]

The following table is a summary of the zoning rules within the Cod Grounds Marine Park:^[2]

Zone	IUCN	Activities permitted						Total area (km^2)
		Vessel transiting	Recreational fishing	Commercial fishing	Commercial aquaculture	Commercial tourism	Mining
National Park	II							4
External link: Zoning and rules for the Temperate East Marine Parks Network

See also

• Protected areas managed by the Australian government

External links

• Temperate East Marine Parks Network - Parks Australia
• Temperate East Marine Parks Network - environment.gov.au (outdated)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Way: Cod Grounds Marine Park (604614725) . OpenStreetMap . August 16, 2018.
2. Web site: Temperate East Marine Parks Network Management Plan 2018 . August 14, 2018 . Parks Australia.
3. Web site: Cod Grounds Commonwealth Marine Reserve . environment.gov.au . 16 August 2018 . © Commonwealth of Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU) .