The launch of an autonomous underwater vehicle in Flinders Marine Park as part of the NESP

Parks Australia has a strong partnership with the National Environmental Science Program (NESP), a commitment by the Australian Government to environment and climate research.

The program

Much of the NESP’s Australian Marine Parks specific research is undertaken by the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub, a national-scale marine research collaboration administered by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

The research partners in this hub are:

the Australian Institute of Marine Science
Charles Darwin University
CSIRO
Geoscience Australia
Museum Victoria
New South Wales (NSW) Department of Primary Industries
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
University of Western Australia
Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)
IMAS University of Tasmania.

Marine Biodiversity Hub

The hub, along with other research institutions that partner with Parks Australia, are contributing towards key outcomes for Australian Marine Parks, including by 2021:

an agreed approach for monitoring and reporting to support implementation and review of Australian Marine Park network management plans, including a list of survey and pressure priorities that will have been in use for at least two years and reviewed in the final year
scientifically derived social and economic research and data, including Indigenous perspectives, will be used to inform decision making for managing Australian Marine Parks networks.

Key planned projects include:

collation and visualisation of existing data relevant to marine parks
assessment of pressures in Australian Marine Parks
developing national standards for marine biodiversity surveys and implementing these approaches as part of a national project to establish scientific baselines
monitoring in Australian Marine Parks.

New baseline data for many previously un-sampled regions of the marine parks is being provided to systematically fill gaps in our knowledge, and assist Parks Australia in managing these parks.