Ninety Mile Beach Marine National Park
National Parks and Reserves
Located 30 kilometres south of Sale and adjacent to Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park, Ninety Mile Beach Marine National Park covers five kilometres of coastline. This untamed stretch of coastline runs alongside the slender strip of sand dunes that protect the Gippsland Lakes.
Beneath the water, vast plains of sand stretch in every direction. However, the sand is not a monotonous as it may appear; wave action and currents sort sand particles into different groups and layers whilst surface features, such as mounds and ripples, are a result of animal and wave action. The coast does not have any rocky headlands or platforms, and offshore there are only a few ribbons of reef which are periodically covered by sand. These formed as shorelines or sand dunes during ice-ages when the sea level was lower than today.
The huge subtidal sandy expanses characteristic of the area, are teeming with marine life. In fact, they are known to have one of the highest species diversity levels of any place on the planet, with 860 species discovered within 10 square metres. These sand dwelling critters can include tube building worms, small molluscs and many tiny crustaceans.
The huge subtidal sandy expanses characteristic of the area, are teeming with marine life. In fact, they are known to have one of the highest species diversity levels of any place on the planet, with 860 species discovered within 10 square metres. These sand dwelling critters can include tube building worms, small molluscs and many tiny crustaceans.
