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Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park

 

 
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Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park
 
 
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The Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park comprises six separate sites, with a combined area of 35.8 km², located in the vicinity of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay
Port Phillip

Port Phillip is a large Headlands and bays in southern Victoria , Australia. Geographically, Port Phillip is a large marine bay 1,930 km? in area which has a coastline length of 264 km ....
 in Victoria, Australia. The park was created in 2002 and represents an expansion of, as well as giving stronger protection to, areas previously collectively termed the Harold Holt Marine Reserve system. The park is assigned the IUCN’s Category II of the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
’ List of National Parks and Protected Areas, showing that the park is managed primarily for ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 protection and recreation.

The closest towns to the areas include St Leonards
St Leonards, Victoria

St Leonards is a coastal township near Geelong, Victoria, Victoria, Australia, Australia, at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula and the northern end of Swan Bay ....
, Queenscliff
Queenscliff, Victoria

Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula at the entrance to Port Phillip in southern Victoria, Australia and is bounded on its north side by the environmentally important Swan Bay ....
, Portsea
Portsea, Victoria

Portsea is a resort town located across Port Phillip from Melbourne, Victoria , Australia. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula....
 and Point Lonsdale
Point Lonsdale, Victoria

Point Lonsdale is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Queenscliff, Victoria, Victoria, Australia, Australia, and included in the Borough of Queenscliffe....
.

Habitats protected by the park include seagrass
Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , which grow in marine , fully-saline water environments....
 meadows, kelp
Kelp

Kelp are large seaweed plants , belonging to the brown algae and classified in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus. Some species can be very long and form kelp forests....
 forests, intertidal and subtidal rocky reef
Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a Rock , bar , or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water .Many reefs result from abiotic processes?deposition of sand, wave erosion planning down rock outcrops, and other natural processes?but the best-known reefs are the coral reefs of tropical waters developed through biotic processes do...
s, sandy beach
Beach

File:MiamiSouthBeachPanoramaEdit.jpgA beach is a geology landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of Rock , such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, pebbles, or cobble....
es and deeper marine environments.






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The Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park comprises six separate sites, with a combined area of 35.8 km², located in the vicinity of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay
Port Phillip

Port Phillip is a large Headlands and bays in southern Victoria , Australia. Geographically, Port Phillip is a large marine bay 1,930 km? in area which has a coastline length of 264 km ....
 in Victoria, Australia. The park was created in 2002 and represents an expansion of, as well as giving stronger protection to, areas previously collectively termed the Harold Holt Marine Reserve system. The park is assigned the IUCN’s Category II of the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
’ List of National Parks and Protected Areas, showing that the park is managed primarily for ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 protection and recreation.

The closest towns to the areas include St Leonards
St Leonards, Victoria

St Leonards is a coastal township near Geelong, Victoria, Victoria, Australia, Australia, at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula and the northern end of Swan Bay ....
, Queenscliff
Queenscliff, Victoria

Queenscliff is a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula at the entrance to Port Phillip in southern Victoria, Australia and is bounded on its north side by the environmentally important Swan Bay ....
, Portsea
Portsea, Victoria

Portsea is a resort town located across Port Phillip from Melbourne, Victoria , Australia. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula....
 and Point Lonsdale
Point Lonsdale, Victoria

Point Lonsdale is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Queenscliff, Victoria, Victoria, Australia, Australia, and included in the Borough of Queenscliffe....
.

Habitats protected by the park include seagrass
Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , which grow in marine , fully-saline water environments....
 meadows, kelp
Kelp

Kelp are large seaweed plants , belonging to the brown algae and classified in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus. Some species can be very long and form kelp forests....
 forests, intertidal and subtidal rocky reef
Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a Rock , bar , or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water .Many reefs result from abiotic processes?deposition of sand, wave erosion planning down rock outcrops, and other natural processes?but the best-known reefs are the coral reefs of tropical waters developed through biotic processes do...
s, sandy beach
Beach

File:MiamiSouthBeachPanoramaEdit.jpgA beach is a geology landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of Rock , such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, pebbles, or cobble....
es and deeper marine environments. Animals protected include many species of wader
Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups....
s, waterbirds and seabird
Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adaptation to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behavior and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding ecological niche have resulted in similar adaptations....
s, as well as Australian Fur Seals, Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins....
s, fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 and a wide range of marine
Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology....
 invertebrate
Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s. It also protects areas and items of historic, archaeological and cultural significance.

Additional and overlapping protection is given to some areas of the park through the Ramsar Convention
Ramsar Convention

File:RAMSAR-logo.gifThe Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental Ecology functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational val...
, which lists Swan Bay and Mud Islands as parts of the Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar site as wetlands of international importance.

The sites are:
  • Swan Bay
    Swan Bay (Victoria)

    Swan Bay is a shallow, marine embayment at the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia. The township of Queenscliff, Victoria lies at its southern end, and St Leonards, Victoria at its northern....
  • Mud Islands
    Mud Islands

    The Mud Islands reserve is located within Port Phillip, about 90 km south-west of Melbourne, Australia, lying 10 km inside Port Phillip Heads, 7 km north of Portsea, Victoria and 9 km east of Queenscliff, Victoria....
  • Point Lonsdale
    Point Lonsdale, Victoria

    Point Lonsdale is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Queenscliff, Victoria, Victoria, Australia, Australia, and included in the Borough of Queenscliffe....
  • Point Nepean
    Point Nepean, Victoria

    Point Nepean marks the southern point of The Rip and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Central Victoria , Australia. It was named after the British politician and colonial administrator, Sir Evan Nepean....
  • Pope's Eye
    Pope's Eye

    The Pope's Eye is the uncompleted foundation for an island fort intended to defend the entrance to Port Phillip in the state of Victoria, Australia....
  • Portsea Hole
    Portsea Hole

    Portsea Hole is a depression in the seabed of Port Phillip near Portsea, Victoria, Australia. It is one of six separate areas that comprise the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and is a popular site for Recreational diving....


Threats

A proposal to dredge mechanically the entrance to Port Phillip Bay and sections of the main shipping channel to the Port of Melbourne
Port of Melbourne

The Port of Melbourne is Australia busiest port for containerised and general cargo. It is located in Melbourne, Australia, Victoria, Australia on the mouth of the Yarra River, which is at the head of Port Phillip Bay....
, in order to facilitate access by larger ships, has the potential to cause extensive turbidity, the release of toxic sediments and mechanical damage to reefs, threatening benthic communities as well as affecting economic activities in the bay such as diving businesses and fishing.

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