The marine park is about 20 kilometres offshore, adjacent to the New South Wales Jervis Marine Park and Commonwealth Booderee National Park.

Together these parks protect a wealth of naturally and culturally important places including land and sea country of the Wreck Bay people, the traditional owners.

Beneath the surface, Jervis Marine Park links shallow continental shelf to the deep ocean. Undersea canyons cut into the continental shelf from the deep waters beyond, providing habitat for deep water, shallower water and wall-dwelling species.

Jervis Bay Marine Park is home to seals, penguins, seabirds, dolphins, and many other animals. Migrating whales drop by during their annual journey along the coast. Scuba diving, swimming, surfing, and fishing are popular activities at the marine park, however there are areas in which recreational activities like fishing and spear fishing are prohibited. There are various walking trails available in the surrounding Jervis Bay National Park.

Why Jervis Bay Marine Park is unique

Jervis Bay Marine Park is visually stunning both above and below the water because of its:

• unique geology and oceanography
• relatively natural and undeveloped coastline
• mix of ecosystems, habitats, flora and fauna.

Jervis Bay's clear waters are largely due to the joining of warm water from the East Australian Current and cooler water from the Bass Strait. With periodic upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the nearby Continental Shelf, these combined currents flow clockwise around the bay, completely flushing it out every 24 days or so.

Landforms provide a variety of habitats including deep water cliffs, exposed and sheltered sandy beaches, rock platforms, rocky reefs, soft-sediment bottoms, kelp forests, small estuaries, expansive seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and open ocean.

The region supports over 230 algae, hundreds of invertebrate and over 210 reef fish species, and sharks, rays, many marine mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened species. Aboriginal people have had strong ties to the Jervis Bay area over thousands of years and many culturally significant Aboriginal sites exist within the Marine Park.