This 100-page full-colour report showcases research conducted by the Marine Biodiversity Hub, a collaborative partnership supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Research Program (NESP).

Through its 10 research partners, the Hub established a network of research agencies, research-users and Indigenous communities to identify and priority needs and contribute to the national evidence-base required to support effective marine management.

The focus was on Australian Marine Parks (AMPs), sustainable resource use, threatened and migratory species and coastal habitat restoration. Research across these themes was underpinned by the development of nationally consistent approaches designed to strengthen Australia’s marine research coordination and capability.

Multi-agency surveys supported by the Hub established bathymetric and ecological baselines in tropical and temperate AMPs. They facilitated the development and application of national standards for data acquisition, sharing and visualisation, transforming the accessibility and utility of research findings for researchers and research-users.

For waters beyond AMPs, the Hub consolidated existing knowledge and developed mapping and predictive tools to better understand natural values, pressures and risks. Shallow-reef biodiversity state and trends, wastewater discharges, and the effects of ship noise and vessel strikes on large marine animals were explored at a national scale.

Hub research supported the recovery and conservation of threatened and migratory marine species including White Sharks, sea snakes, Southern Right Whales, inshore tropical dolphins and handfishes. A key product was The Action Plan for Australian Sharks and Rays 2021: a comprehensive and consistent review of the extinction risk of all Australian sharks, rays and chimaeras.

Research in coastal habitat restoration included evaluating restoration practices and economics, and supporting platforms for knowledge sharing among policy makers, practitioners and communities. Several of the Hub’s regional projects partnered with Indigenous communities to identify and advance Indigenous research interests and priorities. This engagement and knowledge sharing contributed to empowering Indigenous people in land and sea research and management.

Marine reserves are a key tool for the conservation of marine biodiversity, yet only ~2.5% of the world's oceans are protected. The integration of marine reserves into connected networks representing all habitats has been encouraged by international agreements, yet the benefits of this design has not been tested empirically. Australia has one of the largest systems of marine reserves, providing a rare opportunity to assess how connectivity influences conservation success. An Australia-wide dataset was collected using baited remote underwater video systems deployed across a depth range from 0 to 100 m to assess the effectiveness of marine reserves for protecting teleosts subject to commercial and recreational fishing. A meta-analytical comparison of 73 fished species within 91 marine reserves found that, on average, marine reserves had 28% greater abundance and 53% greater biomass of fished species compared to adjacent areas open to fishing. However, benefits of protection were not observed across all reserves (heterogeneity), so full subsets generalized additive modelling was used to consider factors that influence marine reserve effectiveness, including distance-based and ecological metrics of connectivity among reserves. Our results suggest that increased connectivity and depth improve the aforementioned marine reserve benefits and that these factors should be considered to optimize such benefits over time. We provide important guidance on factors to consider when implementing marine reserves for the purpose of increasing the abundance and size of fished species, given the expected increase in coverage globally. We show that marine reserves that are highly protected (no-take) and designed to optimize connectivity, size and depth range can provide an effective conservation strategy for fished species in temperate and tropical waters within an overarching marine biodiversity conservation framework.

In this report, we develop a set of recommended measures to monitor the social and economic dimensions of the Australian Marine Parks. Our recommendations are based on a review of approaches used nationally and internationally, and a series of regional workshops with marine park managers and experts from around Australia. The report provides a long-overdue synthesis of approaches used to monitor the social and economic dimensions of marine parks in Australia and should be useful both for informing monitoring of the Australian Marine Parks as well as state-managed marine parks.