Lord Howe Marine Park is situated at the southernmost limit of coral reef formation, about 550 kilometres offshore of New South Wales and adjacent to the state government Lord Howe Island Marine Park and World Heritage Area. The convergence of tropical and temperate water masses in this Marine Park provide increased nutrients that enhance productivity, and attract an incredibly diverse array of marine life, including warm and cold water corals, turtles, whales and an abundance of tropical and temperate fish species that are at the northern or southern limit of their range.

The park covers 110,126 square kilometres and has five zone types: National Park, Habitat Protection, Habitat Protection (Lord Howe), Recreational Use and Multiple Use. – Parks Australia

Lord Howe ranges from less than 10 to 5,196 metres depth, with an average depth of 3,231 metres. The majority of the Park (58%) falls within the lower-slope zone (2,000-4,000 metres) [view on map].

Based on annotations from publicly available seafloor imagery (Squidle+), the five most dominant seafloor categories in this Park are:

• Shallow: sand (36%), macroalgae (36%), coral biota (18%), bacterial mat (4%), unidentified (3%)
• Mesophotic: macroalgae (62%), bacterial mat (17%), sand (12%), coral biota (6%), unidentified (1%)
• Rariphotic: macroalgae (79%), sand (12%), granule (6%), sponges (2%), coral biota (1%)
• Upper-slope to Abyss: no public imagery available