Davies PL, Ingleton T, Jordan A, and Barrett N (2016). Mapping Shelf Rocky Reef Habitats in the Hunter Commonwealth Marine Reserve. Report to the National Environmental Science Programme, Marine Biodiversity Hub. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Overview
This report documents results of a targeted acoustic field survey of areas on the continental shelf of the Hunter Commonwealth Marine Reserve undertaken as part of Hub research to improve our understanding of the nature and distribution of shelf rocky reefs found within the reserve, and, by inference, are likely to be found in adjacent east Australian shelf waters. It was also intended to identify areas of reef habitat suitable for subsequent biological inventory and monitoring. Shelf rocky reefs are identified as Key Ecological Features (KEFS) within the Commonwealth marine bioregional planning framework, and improving the knowledge of the distribution of this KEF within the Hunter CMR, the only Temperate East region CMR with significant shelf representation, was identified as a high priority in a Hub planning workshop (Lucieer et al. 2015).
