Huon Marine Park lies on the continental shelf, slope and abyssal plain. The park wholly includes the Tasman Seamounts Marine Reserve, proclaimed in 1999, which contains a cluster of seamounts rising from abyssal depths to between 2000 and 1000 metres below the sea surface. This network of seamounts is amongst Australia’s largest cluster of these majestic underwater mountains, and they are believed to support many endemic species unique to individual seamounts. The biodiverse benthic communities include extensive thickets of stony corals, an array of sponges and hydroids and 2 metre tall bamboo corals believed to be over 370 years old. The area is also important habitat for the white shark, and a spawning or nursery areas for many species of important commercial fish, including ocean perch and blue warehou.

Huon Marine Park is located immediately south of Tasmanian waters. It covers 9,991 square kilometres, and has Habitat Protection and Multiple Use zones. – Parks Australia

Huon ranges from 40 to 4,040 metres depth, with an average depth of 2,260 metres. The majority of the Park (60%) falls within the lower-slope zone (2,000-4,000 metres) [view on map]. The mapped areas of the seafloor are dominated by Plane (49%) and Slope (20%) morphological features. Pinnacles have been mapped in this Park [view on map].

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

• Mesophotic: mixed invertebrate community (46%), unidentified biota (14%), sponges (12%), macroalgae (10%), sand (10%)
• Rariphotic: mixed invertebrate community (43%), sand (30%), unidentified biota (9%), sponges (9%), mixed coarse sediments (2%)
• Upper-slope: consolidated hard substrata (59%), mixed coarse sediments (23%), unconsolidated hard substrata (12%), sand (5%), cobble (<1%)
• Mid-slope: sand (27%), consolidated hard substrata (26%), coral biota (22%), mixed coarse sediments (20%), unconsolidated hard substrata (5%)
• Lower-slope to Abyss: no public imagery available

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