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 3,580 ha, located in the vicinity of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay 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’ List of National Parks and Protected Areas, showing that the park is managed primarily for ecosystem protection and recreation.

Habitats protected by the park include seagrass meadows, kelp forests, intertidal and subtidal rocky reefs, sandy beaches and deeper marine environments. Animals protected include many species of waders, waterbirds and seabirds, as well as Australian Fur Seals, Bottlenose Dolphins, fish and a wide range of marine invertebrates. 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, 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:

[edit] Threats

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