Pelican Lagoon
bight in Australia
Pelican Lagoon is a seawater lagoon in the Australian state of South Australia located on the north coast of Kangaroo Island about 18.7 kilometres (11.6 miles) south east of Kingscote. It was named by Matthew Flinders on 4 April 1802 after the large population of pelicans present in its waters and adjoining shorelines. Its role as fishery hatchery had been identified by the early 20th century with the result that fishing in its waters has been restricted in varying degrees.
Since 1971, the entire lagoon was part of a marine protected area known as the American River Aquatic Reserve (abolished 2016), where all fishing and the collection of marine organisms is prohibited. Since 2012, the Pelican Lagoon Sanctuary Zone has been within Encounter Marine Park and managed by National Parks South Australia. The lagoon is probably the oldest marine protected area in South Australia, having been protected since 1914.
Description
Pelican Lagoon is a seawater lagoon located about 2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles) south of American River and about 18.7 kilometres (11.6 miles) south east of Kingscote. The lagoon is bounded by Dudley Peninsula to the east, the main body of Kangaroo Island to the west, an isthmus connecting the above-mentioned bodies of land to the south and an unnamed peninsula to the north that separates it from Eastern Cove. The lagoon is connected to Eastern Cove in Nepean Bay by an inlet named American River. Hog Bay Road which is the main road connecting Penneshaw to Kingscote passes on the east and south sides of the lagoon.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pelican Lagoon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.