Ecological interactions in coastal marine ecosystems: The fish communities and main fish populations of the Jurien Bay Marine Park

The Jurien Bay Marine Park, which extends along the west coast of Australia between approximately Green Head (30o 4.13’S) and Wedge Island (30o20.33’S), was declared a Class A marine park in August 2003 and contains a number of management zones (see Fig. 3.24). The major zones are (1) general use zones, which are open to all types of fishing, (2) scientific reference zones, which are open to rock-lobster fishing and other selected shore based fishing (see Fig. 3.24), and (3) sanctuary zones, which are closed to all types of fishing. The establishment of the Jurien Bay Marine Park provides the opportunity to obtain baseline data on the diversity, densities and compositions of the fish faunas in different habitats in the above zones of a marine park during the early stages of the development of that park. Comparisons between the data obtained for these three biotic variables in these zones in the future and the baseline data acquired at the present time will facilitate an examination of the impact of the establishment of management zones in the Jurien Bay Marine Park on the characteristics of the fish faunas of that park. This collaborative project has only been underway for approximately one year and is scheduled to last for three years. Thus, this report provides the results of preliminary analyses of the data collected during the initial period of the project.