Franklin Marine Park, off the north-west corner of Tasmania, is a wild place with large swells driven by howling westerly gales.

Thousands of seabirds from the colonies on nearby Albatross Island, Black Pyramid Rock and other Hunter Group islands forage in the park, including:

• Australasian gannets
• shy albatrosses
• short-tailed shearwaters.

The marine park includes a 150 metres deep valley etched into the otherwise shallow continental shelf seafloor. It covers 671 square kilometres, with depths from 40 metres to 150 metres.

It is zoned as Multiple Use.

Discover

Australasian gannets have their largest Australian breeding colony on Black Pyramid Rock, six kilometres north of Franklin Marine Park.

These seabirds are easy to recognise by their custard-yellow head and pointy bill, tail and wingtips.

To catch fish, they plunge bill-first into the water, often from a great height.