Great Australian Bight Commonwealth Marine Reserve is a marine protected area located in the Great Australian Bight south of South Australia in waters within the Australian Exclusive economic zone. It was gazetted in November 2012 to replace the Great Australian Bight Marine Park (Commonwealth waters). The reserve consists of three zones - a marine national park zone (IUCN Category II) with an area of 7,728 square kilometres (2,984 sq mi), a multiple use zone (IUCN Category VI) with an area of 22,682 square kilometres (8,758 sq mi) and a special purpose zone (IUCN Category VI) which occupies three separate areas of ocean with a total area of 15,516 square kilometres (5,991 sq mi). The purpose of the reserve is to protect habitat used for calving by the Southern right whale and as a feeding