Note:
This project was finalised in March 2006 and is updated with new reports as they become available.
Location
of Norfolk Seamounts Marine Area
Map showing the Australian
EEZ around Norfolk Island (AMBIS boundary record), some
bathymetry of the region (Petkovic and Buchanan 2002), and
the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) Norfolk
Inshore Fishery box (excluded from the present CVA). The
focus of the CVA is on features that rise above the 2000 m
isobath (dark green range). The inset map shows the location
of Norfolk Island in relation to Australia and New Caledonia.
The Norfolk Province (i.e. the region of the
Australian Marine Jurisdiction around the territory of Norfolk
Island) can be considered, for the purposes of this assessment,
as being made up by two primary biogeographic components
(in a similar way to the Lord Howe Province):
1. Inshore: the shallow seabed around Norfolk
Island. This is imprecisely bounded but can be considered
as contained within the inshore fishery area described
by AFMA, ie, an area of approximately 67 x 40 nautical
miles that includes all the continental shelf and upper
continental slope.
2. Offshore: the area beyond this bounded by
the 200 nm EEZ (under Australia's territorial control).
This is the area of interest as it contains a range of
deep seabed features including many seamounts, ridges
and submarine canyons.
Both will have distinctly different biodiversity
in their benthic and pelagic realms. This work covers the
offshore region only.
Norfolk Island is situated 1676 kilometres
north east of Sydney, at 167°57' East, 29°02' South.
The Territory of Norfolk Island comprises Norfolk, Philip
and Nepean Islands.
More information on the Norfolk Island region
is available from the Geosciences
Australia website or from the Norfolk
Island Tourism website.
Australia exercises territorial control over
the Island's surrounding 200 nautical miles exclusive economic
zone (EEZ). More information can be found at Australian
Fisheries Management Authority's (AFMA) website).
The Region to be considered in this conservation
value assessment is comprised of the seamount regions within
the Australian EEZ (see map above): these are primarily
the Norfolk Ridge, the seamounts to the east of Norfolk
Is, and the Wanganella Bank south of the New Caledonia Basin
to the west of Norfolk Island.
The inshore area, as defined by the AFMA
inshore fishery box shown in the map is excluded from
the present conservation value assessment.
References
Petkovic, P. & Buchanan, C. 2002. Australian
bathymetry and topography grid. [Digital Dataset].
Canberra: Geoscience Australia. (Downloaded May 2004).
Updated:
18/04/11
|
