Franklin Marine Park represents an area of shallow continental shelf ecosystems and incorporates areas representative of two major bioregions: Western Bass Strait Shelf and the Tasmanian Shelf Province. The northern end of the marine park is dominated by gently sloping seafloor covered by fine and coarse sediments, while at the southern end a deep valley is etched into the otherwise shallow continental shelf seafloor. Franklin Marine Park provides a feeding ground for a variety of seabirds such as the australasian gannet, bullers albatross, little penguin and short-tailed shearwater, many of which have breeding colonies on the nearby Hunter Island Group.

The park is located west of the north-western corner of Tasmania and south-east of King Island. It covers 671 square kilometres and is a Multiple Use zone. – Parks Australia

Franklin ranges from 49 to 116 metres depth, with an average depth of 91 metres. The majority of the Park (92%) falls within the rariphotic zone (70-200 metres) [view on map]. The mapped areas of the seafloor are dominated by Plane (68%) and Apron (12%) morphological features [view on map].

Seafloor imagery (Squidle+) exists for this Park but has not yet been annotated.

Read more about the Franklin State of Knowledge (Parks Australia).