parks victoria technical series marine natural values study vol 2 ...

Parks Victoria Technical Series No. 79
Flinders and Twofold Shelf Bioregions Marine Natural Values Study
3 Marine Sanctuaries
3.1 Beware Reef Marine Sanctuary – Twofold Shelf Bioregion
Beware Reef MS is the only Marine Sanctuary in the Twofold Shelf Bioregion, which also
contains Ninety Mile Beach, Point Hicks and Cape Howe Marine National Parks. Beware
Reef MS is approximately 400 km east of Melbourne, and 5 km south east of Cape Conran
and 2.6 km offshore from the Cape Conran Coastal Park. The MS covers 220 hectares and
comprises a 1.5 km square around the isolated Beware Reef (Figure 40 & Figure 41)
Beware Reef MS is accessible by boat from the West Cape ramp on Cape Conran (Parks
Victoria 2006a). The high diversity of marine flora and fauna make Beware Reef MS a highly
regarded scuba diving area (ECC 2000). Three steamship wrecks, the Auckland, Ridge Park
and Albert San also are important recreational diving venues in the MS (Parks Victoria
2006a).
Aboriginal tradition indicates that the Beware Reef MS is part of the Country of the Bidwell
people and Gunai/Kurnai people and that other Aboriginal people including the Monero-
Ngarigo people and Moogji Aboriginal Council people also have an association with the
coastal region of this area (Parks Victoria 2006a).
Important natural values of Beware Reef MS are its isolated intertidal and subtidal granite
reef, extensive subtidal soft sediment, and open ocean that provide habitat for a diversity of
marine flora and fauna species, including sessile invertebrates, algae, fish and transient
whales (ECC 2000; Carey et al. 2007b). The intertidal reef provides a haul-out area for
Australian Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus and New Zealand Arctophoca forsteri fur seals
(Parks Victoria 2006a; Carey et al. 2007b). Stands of bull kelp Durvillaea potatorum grow on
the reef (Carey et al. 2007b; Edmunds et al. 2010b). Sponge ‘gardens’ of soft corals,
sponges, sea anemones, ascidians and zooanthids dominate the reef in deep waters. The
MS has extensive deep subtidal sandy sediment surrounding the reef (Carey et al. 2007b).
In the shallow subtidal (< 10m) the stands of canopy forming algae at Beware Reef MS are
generally bull kelp Durvillaea potatorum and crayweed Phyllospora comosa, with a lesser
contribution by the common kelp Ecklonia radiata (Edmunds et al. 2010b). Red algae
dominates the understorey and includes Rhodymenia wilsonii, Plocamium dilatatum and R.
linearis (Edmunds et al. 2010b). Beware Reef MS invertebrate assemblages have large
numbers of the feather star Cenolia trichoptera and high densities of the black sea urchin
Centrostephanus rodgersii and blacklip abalone Haliotis rubra (Edmunds et al. 2010b; Figure
47). The herbivorous sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii can remove all erect algae to
create ‘urchin barrens’ on the reefs in the MNP (Edmunds et al. 2010b).
Common fish at Beware Reef MS are blue throated wrasse Notolabrus tetricus and purple
wrasse N. fucicola (Edmunds et al. 2010b). Other fish species include the Maori wrasse
Ophthalmolepis lineolata, one-spot puller Chromis hypsilepis, white-ear damselfish Parma
microlepis and toothbrush leather jacket Acanthaluteres vittiger (Williams et al. 2007;
Edmunds et al. 2010b). Large aggregations of butterfly perch Caesioperca lepidoptera are
also a feature of the reef (Edmunds et al. 2010b).
Beware Reef MS provides important feeding habitat for several threatened bird species such
as the shy albatross Thalassarche cauta and wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, which
are listed under both the Flora and Fauna Guarantee (FFG) Act (1998) and Commonwealth
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act (1999). Both are listed as
vulnerable nationally with the wandering albatross listed as endangered in Victoria. The MS
protects feeding areas under the EPBC Act (1999) and species that are listed under the
Japan–Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA) and the China–Australia Migratory Bird
90