What is the Heard Island & McDonald Islands Marine Reserve?

One of the world’s largest highly protected IUCN category 1A marine reserves the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve was established by Australia in the waters surrounding HIMI in 2002.

Why are Heard Island and McDonald Islands isolated?

However, the site’s isolation assists in reducing anthropogenic impacts upon the site’s values. Heard Island and McDonald Islands are located in the Southern Ocean, approximately 1,700 km from the Antarctic continent and 4,100 km south-west of Perth.

Is there a threat to Heard Island and the McDonald Islands?

Ongoing and accelerating climate change poses an increasing risk of fundamental alterations in biodiversity. Geological processes (primarily volcanism and glacial retreat) continue undisturbed. The overall assessment is that there is a low threat to the World Heritage values of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands if visitation remains low.

Does Heard Island have a benthic fauna?

The benthic fauna at Heard Island is diverse, with over 500 distinct invertebrate taxa identified in bottom samples from the banks, shallow plateau and slopes down to 1000 metres (Hibberd, 2014). Highest diversity is observed on the shallow plateau northwest of HIMI and on Shell Bank.

Does Heard Island have high resolution bathymetry?

High resolution bathymetry of the seafloor around Heard Island has been updated in 2011 (Beaman & O’Brien, 2011) and 2023 (Beaman, 2023) to incorporate single beam data from fishing vessels and multi-beam data from research voyages, including from the 2016 and 2020 voyages by the RV Investigator (Coffin et al., 2020).

Will grass affect the Heard Island ecosystem?

The extent to which the presence of the grass will influence the Heard Island’s ecosystems is unknown. Ongoing and accelerating climate change poses an increasing risk of fundamental alterations in biodiversity. Geological processes (primarily volcanism and glacial retreat) continue undisturbed.