Cape Howe Marine National Park
Cape Howe Marine National Park:
The park covers 4,060 hectares and is around 15 kilometres east of Mallacoota. It borders the coastline from approximately 1 kilometres east of Telegraph Point and Gabo Island to the New South Wales border, excluding a section of coast and sea around the Iron Prince Reef, extending offshore to state limits from the high water mark.
​
Diving Conditions :
The dive site is subject to high energy waves and swells, and twice daily tides. Prevailing winds and swells are generally from the south-west and north-east. The park is influenced by both the warm East Australian Current, and cool productive waters upwelling at the edge of the continental shelf.
Over 85 per cent of the subtidal area of the park is deeper than 20 metres.
Tidal variation is 0.9 metres for spring tides and 0.6 metres for neap tides. The geology of the park is sandstone and granite.
Marine Habitat:
Subtidal reef fish assemblages include herring cale, rock cale, leatherjacket, striped mado, banded morwong, Maori wrasse,The eastern blue-spotted flathead, butterfly perch. The eastern hulafish and the yellow tail mackerel can be numerically dominant at individual sites. Large long-finned pike occurs widely on the shallow subtidal reefs.
​
Accessibility:
The dive site is accessible via a long and remote walk in on foot or via boat (launching point in Mallacoota).
​
Source : Parks Victoria
Interesting:
The draughtboard shark Cephaloscyllium laticeps is also common across the park. It mainly lives over sediment and reef in <59 metres, but it can be found down to the deepest depths (105 metres) of the park.