The Solitary Islands Marine Park is a unique region where the warm waters of the East Australian Current meet cooler waters from the south, bringing together tropical, subtropical and temperate marine comunities. The inhabit both subtidal reef and soft sediment habitats in relatively undisturbed waters. The park includes Pimpernel Rock, a submerged pinnacle rising to within a few metres of the surface.

Solitary Islands Marine Park is known for its populations of species with special conservation interest such as the endangered grey nurse shark.

The park is located 5.5 kilometres off the coast of northern New South Wales. It covers 152 square kilometres, and has National Park, Multiple Use and Special Purpose zones. – Parks Australia

Solitary Islands ranges from 26 to 60 metres depth, with an average depth of 44 metres. The majority of the Park (97%) falls within the mesophotic zone (30-70 metres) [view on map]. The mapped areas of the seafloor are dominated by Plane (90%) and Saddle (3%) morphological features [view on map].

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

• Shallow: macroalgae (63%), sponges (18%), coral biota (5%), non-coral cnidaria (5%), ascidians (3%))
• Mesophotic: sponges (77%), invertebrates (10%), unidentified biota (7%), worm biota (3%), sand (1%)