The Gulf of Carpentaria Marine Park, adjacent to the Wellesley Islands, is culturally important for the Lardil, Yangkaal, Kaiadlit and Gangalidda people who have responsibilities for sea country here. The park overlaps the Wellesley Island Sea Claim and Thuwatha/Bujimulla Indigenous Protected Areas.

Gulf of Carpentaria Marine Park protects submerged coral reefs, soft sandy seafloors, undersea pinnacles and a near-pristine coastal zone supporting many species that move between fresh and salt water. The marine park is famous for its network of submerged coral reefs. These reefs contain many species that are unique to the region, and support diverse communities of large plate corals, abundant soft corals and dense sponge gardens. Sea snakes and sharks find refuge in the marine park, and turtles and seabirds that breed on nearby islands come here to feed. Prawns thrive here and commercial prawn fishing is an important activity in the marine park.

The park begins 90 kilometres north-west of Karumba and adjacent to the Wellesley Islands. It covers 23,771 square kilometres, and has National Park and Special Purpose (Trawl) zones. – Parks Australia

Gulf of Carpentaria ranges from less than 10 to 60 metres depth, with an average depth of 35 metres. The majority of the Park (64%) falls within the mesophotic zone (30-70 metres) [view on map].

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

• Shallow: macroalgae (36%), sand (32%), coral biota (18%), unconsolidated hard substrata (5%), sponges (4%)
• Mesophotic to Upper-slope: no public imagery available