Marine park · New South Wales

Cape Byron Marine Park

Facts about this park from CAPAD 2024 and the world data on Biohotspot. Each figure is computed from the dataset named beside it; a figure that is missing or fails a check is left out.

Area
223 km²
IUCN category Ia
0.0 %
Gazetted
2002
Open layers with data
230

The park

Area by IUCN category
IUCN categorykm²Share
VI11953.4 %
II61.227.5 %
IV42.719.2 %
Named zones in CAPAD
ZoneIUCNkm²
General Use ZoneVI119
Byron Bay Sanctuary ZoneII56.2
Tallow Beach Habitat Protection ZoneIV13.0
Seven Mile Beach Habitat Protection ZoneIV12.8
Brunswick River Offshore Habitat Protection ZoneIV9.36
Broken Head Sanctuary ZoneII2.90
Cape Byron Offshore Habitat Protection ZoneIV2.16
Brunswick River Habitat Protection ZoneIV1.68
Lennox Head Sanctuary ZoneII1.27
Mackerel Boulder Habitat Protection ZoneIV1.16
Wilsons Reef and Bait Reef Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.64
Marshalls Creek Sanctuary ZoneII0.55
Grays Lane Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.49
Tyagarah Beach (South) Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.48
Belongil Beach, Main Beach and Clarkes Beach Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.43
Tyagarah Beach North Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.29
Simpsons Creek Sanctuary ZoneII0.26
Belongil Creek Special Purpose ZoneVI0.17
Tallow Creek Special Purpose ZoneVI0.14
Cape Byron Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.08
Lennox Head Boulder Foreshore Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.08
Marshalls Creek Oyster Leases Special Purpose ZoneVI0.05
The Moat/Bream Hole Sanctuary ZoneII0.05
East Cape Byron Habitat Protection ZoneIV0.03
Brunswick River Boat Harbour Special Purpose ZoneVI0.03
Lennox Head Special Purpose ZoneVI0.01

Habitats and blue carbon

Pressures

Data and research

  • 230 of the 1,475 world map layers on Biohotspot with an open licence have data inside the park.
  • 1 document in the Biohotspot research library matches the search “Cape Byron”.

Left out

  • Global Mangrove Watch (2020) and the Sanderman et al. (2018) map disagree on how much mangrove is here, so neither the mangrove area nor the mangrove soil carbon is shown.

Sources and licences

  • Cumulative human impacts: pressure and cumulative impacts data (2013, all pressures) · Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB)
    Licence: CC0 1.0
    Halpern, B., Frazier, M., Potapenko, J., Casey, K., Koenig, K., Longo, C., Lowndes, J., Rockwood, C., Selig, E., Selkoe, K., Walbridge, S. (2015) Cumulative human impacts: pressure and cumulative impacts data (2013, all pressures). KNB. doi:10.5063/F15718ZN. Associated paper: Halpern et al. 2015, 'Spatial and temporal changes in cumulative human impacts on the world's ocean' (no formal citation string given in the metadata).
  • Modelled Global Distribution of the Kelp Biome · UNEP-WCMC Ocean Data Viewer (hosting); University of Auckland / Nord University authors
    Licence: CC BY 4.0
    Jayathilake D.R.M., Costello M.J. 2020. A modelled global distribution of the kelp biome. Biological Conservation 252, 108815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108815 (v2: Jayathilake & Costello 2021, Biological Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109099)
  • Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2024 – Marine · Australian Government, DCCEEW
    Licence: CC BY 4.0
    Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (2025). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2024 – Marine.
  • Global soil organic carbon in tidal marshes, version 2 (0–30 and 30–100 cm) · Maxwell, Spalding, Friess et al.
    Licence: CC BY 4.0
    Maxwell T.L. et al. (2024) Soil carbon in the world's tidal marshes. Nat. Commun. 15, 10265. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54572-9

A park here is the CAPAD 2024 Marine zones that share a name and a state. Habitat areas are the habitat maps’ polygons inside the park; carbon, heat stress and human impact are the map cells that touch it. Only sources with an open licence are used. Computed on 2026-10-27.