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South East Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs) Seamounts project
Overview
The
importance of conserving Australia's seamount biodiversity
 Seamounts are oases on the massive and predominately muddy floor
of the deep sea because they provide hard elevated and current-swept
attachment sites for rich communities of 'emergent' filter-feeding
animals such as corals, sponges, seastars and anemones.
 Over long periods, stony corals build complex reefs covering large
areas of rocky substratum that provide the base for the seamount
community. Their structural forms provide habitat for a great diversity
of smaller mobile animals including crustaceans, brittle stars,
urchins and molluscs. Physical removal of this habitat will take
years if not decades to reverse.
Non-destructive photographic surveys revealed that the distribution
of stony coral on the Huon seamounts extends from seamount peaks
down to about 1,400 m depth.
 Australia's Department of the Environment and Water Resources
(DEW) is protecting the unique and vulnerable seabed communities
of a representative set of Australia's seamounts within a National
representative System of Marine Protected Areas to be implemented
over the next few years. Scientific research to increase knowledge
of seamount ecosystems is included in their management plans.
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