Northwest Shelf Transition

It adjoins the Kimberley region of Western Australia and the adjacent coast of the Northern Territory.

[3] The carbonate banks and pinnacles of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf form habitats distinct from others in the region, and support high diversity of marine species including sponge gardens and octocorals.

The carbonate banks are home to Olive ridley turtles, olive sea snake (Aipysurus laevis) and turtle-headed sea snake (Emydocephalus annulatus), and attract large fish like mackerel, red snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus), and goldband snapper (Pristipomoides multidens).

[3] The Western Australian population of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) mate and give birth in the bays along the Kimberley coast during the winter months, before migrating south along the Western Australian coast to their summer feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean.

[2] The Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA) identifies six distinct meso-scale bioregions that make up the province.