Great Sandy Marine Park benthic habitat 2019

An indicative map of the various benthic (sea floor) habitats that occur in the Great Sandy Marine Park (GSMP) was developed in 2019 to support a comprehensive review of the GSMP zoning plan and day to day management of the marine park. GSMP is a Queensland state marine park that extends from Baffle Creek in the north to Double Island Point in the south and includes the tidal waters of Hervey Bay, the Great Sandy Strait and Tin Can Bay and waters seaward to three nautical miles. The habitat map was the outcome of a benthic habitat mapping project in the initial stages of the zoning plan review, that applied the Queensland intertidal and subtidal ecosystem classification scheme to identify and map the marine park’s habitat types. The marine park’s habitat types were derived from “The intertidal and subtidal habitat mapping for Central Queensland” dataset which provides seascape scale ecosystem mapping for Central Queensland state waters extending from the mouth of the Fitzroy River down to Double Island Point. Each ecosystem type is based on information about eight biophysical attributes that drive ecosystem type: benthic depth, inundation, energy magnitude, consolidation, substrate composition, sediment texture, terrain morphology and structural macrobiota. For further information about this dataset see the Wetlandinfo website https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/wetlands/ An expert panel was convened to assist GSMP project staff in identifying a broad list of ecological attributes or characteristics and the different combinations of these, that would most likely determine the types of benthic habitats likely to occur in GSMP. These were further refined to identify marine park habitat types specifically for marine park management. The final marine park typology and map of 23 habitat types, was refined throughout the zoning plan review process due to newly available data, expert input and local knowledge. View the original metadata record at https://qldspatial.information.qld.gov.au/catalogue/custom/viewMetadataDetails.page?uuid=%7BCA73B01A-1391-4701-98CB-B72E5FB54845%7D