According to the NSW Department of Environment, Australia is home to more than 500,000 animal and plant species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.

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Over the last 200 years, more than 100 of our animal and plant species have become extinct.

In New South Wales alone there are close to 1,000 animal and plant species at risk of extinction.

While Port Stephens is famous for its endangered koalas, a host of other flora and fauna are also considered to be at risk.

The Port Stephens Great Lakes Marine Park is home to important areas for the critically endangered Grey Nurse Shark, with critical habitats at The Pinnacle, Big/Little Seal Rocks and Little Broughton Island.

The Black Rockcod, which belongs to the cod and Grouper family, can be found hiding along rocky reef crevices.

Black Rockcod populations have been significantly reduced over time due to a number of factors including: overharvesting by line, net and spearfishers; hooking and handling injuries; and loss or degradation of estuarine and intertidal nursery habitats.

The park is also home to green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, with juvenile green turtles the most abundant within Port Stephens estuary.

Occasionally, leatherback turtles are spotted offshore.

Australia’s rarest endemic seabird – the vulnerable Gould’s petrel – breeds only on Cabbage Tree and Boondelbah Islands, immediately off the heads of Port Stephens.

The species feeds surface fish, small squid and krill in oceanic waters over a wide area.

Back on the mainland, work has been underway to protect the threatened Villous Mintbush, which is susceptible to extinction because of development pressures, its small population size and restricted distribution.

In June, a collaboration between conservation groups sought to protect the species locally.

“The collaboration between the NSW Government’s Saving Our Species program, SOS, the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens and the Friends of Tomaree National Park came together this year on World Environment Day (5 June) to boost the population of the threatened Villous Mintbush – Prostanthera densa – in Tomaree National Park,” Sue Olsen of EcoNetwork Port Stephens told News Of The Area.

“The Villous Mintbush was once widespread in the broader Nelson Bay area, but prior to the SOS program, very few plants remained in only two locations too close to urban development,” she said.

By Marian SAMPSON