The Moreton Bay Marine Park was established in 1992 to protect ecologically significant habitats in Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay

Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...

. The World Heritage listed park extends from Caloundra south to the Gold Coast Seaway

Gold Coast Seaway

The Gold Coast Seaway or Southport Seaway is the main navigation entrance from the Pacific Ocean into the Gold Coast Broadwater and southern Moreton Bay and is one of Australia’s most significant coastal engineering projects...

. The park's border extends up to the highest tidal mark and covers a total of 3400 km2.

The park provides protection to sensitive reef sites near Tangalooma

Tangalooma, Queensland

Originally a whaling station, Tangalooma is a resort township on the west side of Moreton Island in Queensland, Australia. It lies on the eastern shore of Moreton Bay and is known for its resort accommodation, dolphin-feeding program, sand dunes and wreck diving. Swimming is popular along the...

 and Flinders Reef

Flinders Reef

Flinders Reef is a small isolated reef near Moreton Island, 5 km north-west of Cape Moreton in South East Queensland. It has the highest number of coral species of any sub tropical reef system along Australia's east coast and is the nearest true coral reef to Brisbane. Flinders Reef is one of...

. It includes waterways such as Coombabah Lake

Coombabah Lake

Coombabah Lake is located 5 km from the coast and 8 km North West of Southport on the Gold Coast of southeast Queensland, Australia. The lake, which comprises the Coombabah Lake Nature Reserve and borders the Ivan Gibbs Wetland Reserve, is classified as a Fish Habitat Area within the Moreton Bay...

, mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

 forests, swamps, marshes, tidal mudflats, sandflats and seagrass

Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...

 beds. It is a temporary home to migrating shorebirds that inhabit wetlands. Dugong

Dugong

The dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...

s, whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

s and turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s swim in the waters of the bay.

The park is managed by the Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland)

Queensland's Environmental Protection Agency was for some time a separate department of the Queensland Government, and, following 2009 State elections, became a part of the Government's larger Department of Environment and Resource Management.This part of the Department of Environment and...

.

Marine Park Zoning Plan

From 1 March 2009, activities in the park are designated under the Marine Park Zoning Plan. 16% of the bay is protected in green zones or marine national park zones. This leaves 84% of the park available to anglers.

The Queensland Government has spent AUD2$ million to create three artificial reef

Artificial reef

An artificial reef is a human-made underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, control erosion, block ship passage, or improve surfing....

s within the marine park. A free user guide is widely available in bait and boat shops in the region as well as online.

Zones

There are four zones in Moreton Bay Marine Park. These are the Marine national park zone (green) which contain areas of high conservation value, Conservation park zone (yellow) allowing limited fishing and crabbing, Habitat protection (dark blue) zone for sensitive habitats with no trawling allowed and General use zone (light blue) allow activities such as trawling. The zones are patrolled by rangers. Fines of up to A$500 for fishing in the green zone have been issued.

Designated areas

There are nine types of designated areas in the marine park. These areas have been set aside so that specific issues that occur at specific locations can be properly managed. Examples of designated areas include Go slow areas to protect dugongs and turtles, No anchoring areas to protect sensitive reefs and Grey nurse shark areas designed to conserve the endangered shark species.

See also

• Moreton Island National Park
  Moreton Island National Park
  Moreton Island National Park is a national park which covers 98% of Moreton Island in Queensland, Australia, 58 km northeast of Brisbane. It has three main townships, Bulwer, Cowan Cowan and Kooringal....
  
  
• Protected areas of Queensland

External links

• Moreton Bay Marine Park Department of Environment and Resource Management.