Marine park · New South Wales

Port Stephens - Great Lakes 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: 985 km²
IUCN category Ia: 0.0 %
Gazetted: 2005
Open layers with data: 299

The park

Port Stephens - Great Lakes covers 985 km².CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
CAPAD 2024 holds 125 records for this park.CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
It has 63 named zones.CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
None of the park is in zones of IUCN category Ia, strict nature reserve.CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
CAPAD lists it as Marine Park.CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
Its managing authority in CAPAD is NSW_DPIRD.CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0
It was gazetted in 2005 (CAPAD gazettal date).CAPAD 2024 · CC BY 4.0

Area by IUCN category
IUCN category	km²	Share
VI	435	44.2 %
IV	376	38.2 %
II	174	17.6 %

Named zones in CAPAD
Zone	IUCN	km²
General Use Zone	VI	431
Coastal Habitat Protection Zone	IV	315
Seal Rocks Sanctuary Zone	II	65.9
Open Ocean Habitat Protection Zone	IV	23.6
The Pinnacle Sanctuary Zone	II	20.7
Myall Lake Number 3 Sanctuary Zone	II	15.4
Edith Breakers Habitat Protection Zone	IV	10.1
Boolambayte Lake Sanctuary Zone	II	9.65
Little Swan Bay Sanctuary Zone	II	8.39
Tilligerry Creek Habitat Protection Zone	IV	8.37
Broughton Island Sanctuary Zone	II	8.30
Fly Point - Corrie Island Sanctuary Zone	II	7.96
Bombah Broadwater Sanctuary Zone	II	7.35
Karuah River Habitat Protection Zone	IV	5.50
Fiona Beach Sanctuary Zone	II	4.59
Smiths Lake Sanctuary Zone	II	4.20
Myall Lake Number 2 Sanctuary Zone	II	3.89
Cabbage Tree Island Sanctuary Zone	II	3.72
Fingal Island Sanctuary Zone	II	3.00
Myall Lake Number 1 Sanctuary Zone	II	2.57
Dutchmans Beach Habitat Protection Zone	IV	2.18
Smiths Lake Habitat Protection Zone	IV	2.16
Group 1 (Aquaculture) Special Purpose Zone	VI	2.12
Soldiers Point Habitat Protection Zone	IV	1.87
Myall River at Bombah Broadwater Habitat Protection Zone	IV	1.36
Cabbage Tree Island Habitat Protection Zone	IV	1.31
Cromartys Bay Sanctuary Zone	II	1.31
Nerong Creek Habitat Protection Zone	IV	1.31
Cellito South Sanctuary Zone	II	1.14
Bombah Broadwater General Use Zone	VI	1.13
North Arm Cove Sanctuary Zone	II	1.07
Broughton Island Habitat Protection Zone	IV	1.03
Fiona Beach Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.84
Pindimar Sanctuary Zone	II	0.77
Myall River Sanctuary Zone	II	0.68
Sawtooth Rocks Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.64
Karuah River Sanctuary Zone	II	0.58
Mallabula Sanctuary Zone	II	0.49
Wallis and Fenninghams Island Creeks Sanctuary Zone	II	0.46
Salamander Bay Sanctuary Zone	II	0.38
Tea Gardens Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.37
Twelve Mile Creek Sanctuary Zone	II	0.33
Tarbuck Bay Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.32
Cellito South Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.29
Jimmys Beach Sanctuary Zone	II	0.28
Number One Cove Sanctuary Zone	II	0.27
Soldiers Point Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.27
Little Branch Creek Sanctuary Zone	II	0.24
Zenith Beach Sanctuary Zone	II	0.20
Fame Cove Sanctuary Zone	II	0.17
Smiths Lake Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.16
Nelson Bay Marina Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.15
Lemon Tree Passage Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.15
Myall River Camp Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.09
Oyster Cove Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.08
Tea Gardens Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.08
Evens Point Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.07
Port Stephens Fisheries Centre Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.05
Anchorage Marina Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.05
Nerong Harbour Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.02
Little Beach Habitat Protection Zone	IV	0.01
Fly Point Cove Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.00
Little Beach Special Purpose Zone	VI	0.00

Habitats and blue carbon

The modelled kelp forest biome covers 3,877 ha of the park.Jayathilake & Costello 2020 · CC BY 4.0
Maxwell et al. (2024) map 248,706 tonnes of carbon in the top metre of tidal marsh soil inside the park, 249 tonnes per hectare on average.Maxwell et al. 2024 · CC BY 4.0

Pressures

Of the years 1985 to 2025, 2022 brought the most coral heat stress: averaged over the park, the year's highest Degree Heating Weeks reached 11.8 °C-weeks. NOAA counts 4 °C-weeks as bleaching likely and 8 as severe bleaching and mortality likely.NOAA Coral Reef Watch · Public domain
The 2013 cumulative human impact score (Halpern et al. 2015) averages 1.58 across the park, from 0.02 to 4.09.Halpern et al. 2015 · CC0 1.0

Data and research

299 of the 1,475 world map layers on Biohotspot with an open licence have data inside the park.
No document in the Biohotspot research library matches the search “Port Stephens - Great Lakes”.

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

NOAA Coral Reef Watch, daily global 5 km satellite Degree Heating Week (v3.1), annual maxima 1985–2025 · NOAA Coral Reef Watch
Licence: Public domain (US Government work)
NOAA Coral Reef Watch. 2018, updated daily. NOAA Coral Reef Watch Version 3.1 Daily 5km Satellite Regional Virtual Station Time Series Data. College Park, Maryland, USA.
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.