11 Interesting Facts About Great Australian Bight

The Great Australian Bight is an oceanic bight, or a large embayment, that runs alongside the southern shoreline of Australia. It covers an space of round 45,926 km2 and has a depth starting from 15 to 6000 m.

It is normally thought-about part of the Indian Ocean; nevertheless, the Australian Hydrographic Service classifies it as part of the Southern Ocean. The shoreline is marked by cliff faces and rocky capes, making it excellent for whale watching.

A Bight is a broad and shallow bay or a bend in a shoreline, river, or cliff. It is completely different from sounds as they’re much deeper.

Read alongside to study 11 attention-grabbing information concerning the Great Australian Bight.

How was the Great Australian Bight fashioned?

The Great Australian Bight was created round 50 million years in the past when Antarctica separated from Australia. The Nullarbor Plain, which dominates the shoreline of the Bight, was a seabed hundreds of thousands of years in the past. It is manufactured from limestone bedrock, eroded to create cliff faces.

The plain lies in an arid and semi-arid area and offers virtually zero runoff and terrestrial vitamins to the Great Australian Bight, which will get many of the vitamins for its marine life from the seasonal upwelling of ocean water across the Eyre Peninsula.

Upwelling happens, particularly in autumn and summer time. It fuses vitamins into the Bight and makes it extra ecologically productive. The nutrient-rich water permits marine species to thrive within the bay, which is thought to deal with round 85 endemic species.

Though tough estimates exist, the overall variety of species that dwell and people who migrate to the Bight are but to be decided. However, it’s a important habitat for 2 endangered marine mammals that require conservation. These are the southern proper whale and the Australian sea lion.

The Head of the Great Australian Bight witnesses many southern proper whales throughout winter, and Australian sea lions breed close to the cliffs.

Part of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park

This marine protected space is located within the Great Australian Bight south of Southern Australia in waters inside the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone.

The Marine Park has three zones: a marine nationwide park zone masking round 7728 sq. kilometres, a multiple-use zone masking 22,682 km2 and a particular objective zone which occupies three separate areas of ocean masking 5991 sq. miles or 15,516 km2.

The Marine Park was made to guard the habitat used for calving by the Southern proper whale as a feeding space for species just like the sperm whale, Australian sea lions, short-tailed shearwater and the good white shark.

It is part of the Australian Marine Parks group known as the South-West Marine Parks Network. It additionally comes below the marine protected areas in waters inside the Australian and South Australian jurisdictions inside the Bight, which have been collectively often called the Great Australian Bight Marine Park until 2005.

Charted by Navigator Matthew Flinders in 1802

For round 40,000 years, the Aboriginal individuals of Australia, particularly the Wangal and Spinifex, hunted and lived alongside the Bight’s shoreline and the Nullarbor Plains.

Europeans encountered the Great Australian Bight within the 1600s. It was additionally charted by Mathew Flinders, a British Navigator and Cartographer. He was concerned in a number of voyages of discovery undertaken between 1790 and 1803. The most well-known amongst them is his circumnavigation of Australia.

When he was on his technique to Britain, the French Governor of Isle de France, or Mauritius, arrested him. France and Britain have been at battle; nevertheless, Flinders thought that the scientific nature of his work would permit him to be launched. This didn’t occur, and he remained in custody for six years. During this era, he wrote extensively about his voyages, hoping to publish them.

His well being deteriorated, and although he may lastly return to Britain in 1810, he couldn’t see the appreciation his e-book ‘ A Voyage to Terra Australis’ obtained.

Later, the land explorer Edward John Eyre performed a land-based survey of the area. He explored Australia and was additionally the governor of Jamaica.

AHS Defines the bight with a smaller space

According to the Australian Hydrographic Service (AHS), the Great Australian Bight spans from Cape Pasley, Western Australia, to Cape Carnot in South Australia, which is roughly 1160 km or 720 miles. Most of the bight is located south of the Nullarbor Plain.

Though the AHS considers the Great Australian Bight a part of the Southern Ocean, exterior of Australia, it’s seen as a part of the Indian Ocean, per the International Hydrographic Organisation.

The Great Australian Bight Coastline

The area close to Cape Pasley is an outcrop of the age-old crystalline rocks. Near the cape, the coast curves and an escarpment runs parallel to it. Between the escarpment lies the Israelite Plain, right here often called Wylie Scarp. Near the shore lie lagoons and coastal dunes.

The escarpment touches the shore because the coast bends eastwards, forming the 200 km-long Baxter Cliffs. As the escarpment curves once more close to Cocklebiddy, the Roe Plains might be seen, extending 300 km alongside the coast and reaching 35 km inland at their broadest level. Here, one can discover dune fields, some vegetation, shrubland, and mallee woodland.

The escarpment nears the coast once more on the border of Western and Southern Australia. Here, Bunda Cliffs span 220 km to the top of the Great Australian Bight.

At the Bight’s head, the escarpment bends inland. The shoreline of the western Eyre Peninsula is characterised by bays, islands, rocky capes and islands such because the Nuyts Archipelago, Fowlers Bay, Streaky Bay and so forth. The shoreline is manufactured from aeolianite limestone eroded by waves and currents.

Perfect place for whale watching

The Great Australian Bight is an ideal place for whale watching. It is a well-liked exercise throughout the winter within the southern hemisphere when a number of southern proper whales come to the area from their summer time feeding grounds within the Antarctic.

Whales come to the Bight, particularly to its Head, to breed and calve their younger. They don’t feed till they return to the Antarctic. The variety of whales on this area has depleted as a result of whaling business; nevertheless, their inhabitants has considerably recovered.

The head of the Great Australian Plain lies to the south of Nullarbor Plain

The Nullarbor Plain is characterised by a semi-arid local weather. It is flat and has virtually no timber. It spans Western Australia and Southern Australia and is surrounded by cliffs that attain 60 to 120 m in peak. Situated on the coast of the Great Australian Bight with the Great Victoria Desert to its north, it’s the largest single publicity of limestone bedrock on the planet, masking 77,000 sq. miles. At its broadest level, it stretches about 1100 km from east to west.

Cape Arid National Park & Nuytsland Reserve lie on its shores

The Cape Arid National Park in Western Australia lies 120 km east of Esperance. At its japanese aspect lies the Israelite Bay. The western half is known as Duke of Orleans Bay. Its shoreline is formed by Cape Arid, a Bay known as Sandy Bight and Cape Pasley additional east.

The space is thought for sandy seashores, rocky headlands, and granite hills stretching to the north, which be a part of Russell Range. The park’s highest level is Tower Peak, which measures 594 m. The japanese border of the Park joins the Nuytsland Nature Reserve. Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area joins the park on the north.

Nuytsland Nature Reserve is a protected space in Western Australia. In the southwest, the reserve has the Israelite Plain, a coastal plain with seashores, sandplains, coastal lagoons, dunes and the Israelite Bay. In the center of the reserve lies Baxter Cliffs, that are 80 m excessive and span 190 km alongside the coast.

Plants discovered right here embrace heath on the western coastal plains and headlands, woodlands, and mallee, which is considerable within the east. Blue bush, eucalyptus, and shrublands additionally happen right here. The space has been surveyed for the western floor parrot, which is native to Australia.

Has many islands like Whidbey Islands and Investigator Island

The Nuyts Archipelago lies in South Australia within the Great Australian Bight. It has round 30 islands and reefs, and people located furthest from the coast of the Eyre Peninsula are known as the Isles of St Francis. The archipelago consists of granite islands and reefs that provide breeding websites for short-tailed shearwaters and Australian sea lions.

The Recherche Archipelago, often called the Bay of Isles, contains 105 islands. They span east to west and 50 km offshore, masking 4000 km2. The western group of islands lie close to Esperance, and the japanese group lies at Israelite Bay.

The Investigator Island is an archipelago in South Australia comprising Flinders Island and 5 different island teams. Commander Matthew Flinders named it after HMS Investigator when he explored the area in 1802. The islands lie inside the Great Australian Bight.

Known for fishing and shellfish industries

The Great Australian Bight was exploited for a number of years by the fishing, whaling, and shellfish industries. Southern bluefish tuna has been a favoured goal within the Bight.

Oil and fuel exploration within the Bight began within the Sixties, and oil majors like Chevron, BP, and Equinor deliberate to drill wells within the southern a part of the realm in 2017. However, in 2016, they withdrew the plans, saying they weren’t aggressive and didn’t align with BP’s strategic goals.

The firms have been additionally dealing with opposition from the group. The Wilderness Society emphasised that the worst oil leak may have a disastrous impact on Australia’s southern shoreline.

How to discover the Great Australian Bight

One can discover the Great Australian Bight in some ways relying on how one prefers to journey and one’s pursuits. Most of the Bight is kind of distant, which makes it troublesome to entry apart from just a few cities. For many individuals, exploring means basing oneself in one of many coastal cities like Ceduna and travelling by street or sea from there. If somebody is up for a street journey, then the shoreline of the Bight can loved with a number of stops alongside the way in which.

The greatest technique to take pleasure in and recognize the marine fauna, flora, and pristine ocean atmosphere is to discover the Great Australian Bight by ship. One can simply halt off the Eyre Highway and get a more in-depth have a look at the ocean. There are additionally many enjoyable actions obtainable.

You can e-book fishing charters and excursions to look at whales, a once-in-a-lifetime expertise. Surfing and snorkelling are additionally obtainable, however they’re normally confined to the Bight’s japanese aspect round Ceduna and the Eyre Peninsula.

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Disclaimer: The writer’s views expressed on this article don’t essentially replicate the views of Marine-Salvage. Data and charts, if used within the article, have been sourced from obtainable data and haven’t been authenticated by any statutory authority. The writer and Marine-Salvage don’t declare it to be correct nor settle for any accountability for a similar. The views represent solely the opinions and don’t represent any tips or suggestions on any plan of action to be adopted by the reader.

The article or photographs can’t be reproduced, copied, shared or utilized in any kind with out the permission of the writer and Marine-Salvage.

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About Author

Zahra is an alumna of Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is an avid author, possessing immaculate analysis and enhancing expertise. Author of a number of educational papers, she has additionally labored as a contract author, producing many technical, artistic and advertising and marketing items. A real aesthete at coronary heart, she loves books slightly greater than anything.

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