Ecosystem Reference
Ecosystem West Central Australian Shelf
Type Sea/Bay/Gulf
Salinity saltwater
Other Names
Location
LME SAU No 44. LME2002, LME2006, SAU 2008. 18° S 30° S - 104° E 118° E
Location Map West_Central_Australian_Shelf.png
Size Ref
River Length Area 580405 km2 Drainage Area
Depth
Average Depth Max Depth Ref
Temperature
Surface 24.0 °C Map173.gif
100 Meters Depth 21.0 °C Map174.gif
Description The West-Central Australia Large Marine Ecosystem extends from Cape Leeuwin, at Australia’s southwest edge, to NorthWest Cape. The LME owes its unity to the West Australia Current, a north-flowing current coming from the circulation pattern of the counter-clockwise Indian Ocean gyre and West Wind Drift. But it also has a southward-bound band of warm water known as the Leeuwin Current, thanks to which tropical reefs flourish further south than anywhere else in the world. The LME has an extremely narrow shelf. It has cool, temperate waters and it includes seagrass beds and diverse and abundant algal communities (http://na.nefsc.noaa.gov/lme/text/lme44.htm; formerly West-Central Australian Shelf).
Comments on faunal list Area from SAU (November 2015).
URL 1 http://www.seaaroundus.org/lme/44.aspx
URL 2
Ecosystem Checklist Link
Total
FishBase Literature
Species Families Species Families Reference
633 172
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