Spencer Gulf Shelf Province

The Spencer Gulf Shelf Province, also known as the South Australian Gulfs marine ecoregion, is a biogeographic region of Australia's continental shelf and coastal waters. It includes the warm temperate coastal waters of South Australia's central coast. It is a provincial bioregion in the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA) system.

Geography

The Spencer Gulf Shelf Province includes the warm temperate coastal waters and continental shelf of the eastern Great Australian Bight, Spencer Gulf and St Vincent Gulf, the waters around Kangaroo Island, and the Coorong coast. It extends from Point Brown in the west to Cape Jaffa in the east, and out to the edge of the continental shelf. It bounded on the west by the Great Australian Bight Shelf Transition, and to the east by the Western Bass Strait Shelf Transition.

The bioregion is influenced by the warm Leeuwin Current, which runs eastwards along the coast. Stretches of coast facing the open ocean, particularly along the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula and at the 'Kangaroo Island Pool' south of Kangaroo Island, experience cold-water upwelling during the summer months, known as the Great South Australian Coastal Upwelling System.

The Spencer and St Vincent gulfs are largely enclosed by semi-arid land with little freshwater inflow, resulting in hypersaline waters and subtropical water temperatures.

Meso-scale bioregions

The IMCRA identifies five meso-scale bioregions that make up the province:

Coorong (COR), Cape Jaffa to Cape Jervis.