Background: Our knowledge of the benthic fauna at lower bathyal to abyssal (LBA, > 2000 m) depths off Eastern Australia was very limited with only a few samples having been collected from these habitats over the last 150 years. In May–June 2017, the IN2017_V03 expedition of the RV Investigator sampled LBA benthic communities along the lower slope and abyss of Australia’s eastern margin from off mid-Tasmania (42°S) to the Coral Sea (23°S), with particular emphasis on describing and analysing patterns of biodiversity that occur within a newly declared network of offshore marine parks. Methods: The study design was to deploy a 4m (metal) beam trawl and Brenke sled to collect samples on soft sediment substrata at the target seafloor depths of 2500 and 4000m at every 1.5 degrees of latitude along the western boundary of the Tasman Sea from 42° to 23°S, traversing seven Australian Marine Parks. Results: The biological sampling included 35 beam trawls, 28 Brenke sleds, 8 box cores, 20 surface meso-zooplankton tows, and 7 Deep Towed Camera transects. In total, 25,710 specimens were identified to 1084 taxonomic entities, including 847 species-level, 144 genus-level and 69 family-level and 24 higher-level taxa. Of the species-level taxa, only 457 were assigned species-level taxonomic names, which implies that up to 58% of the collected fauna is undescribed. In addition, the ranges of numerous species have been extended to include the western Tasman Sea. Conclusions: The lower bathyal and abyssal fauna of soft sediment seafloors off eastern Australia has been systematically surveyed for the first time. The resultant collections will provide the foundation for much future ecological, biogeographical, phylogenetic and taxonomic research.

In early 2020, a team aboard the RV Falkor explored two deep-sea canyons within the Gascoyne Marine Park. More than 30 new species were discovered, 2570 seafloor images were annotated, and 11,250 km2 were mapped. This survey confirmed that canyons within Gascoyne Marine Park are ecologically important systems, supporting numerous deep-sea species, many of which were discovered to be new to science. The advanced capabilities of the ROV SuBastian to navigate and image complex (near vertical) walls and overhangs within the canyons revealed patterns in the distribution of the seafloor taxa consistent with small-scale environmental variability. Repeat multibeam mapping revealed a dynamic canyon system that continues to be shaped by turbidity currents. The occurrence of reworked seagrass blades within the canyons provided a new understanding of these canyon systems as an active conduit between shallow shelf and abyssal environments. The distribution of the seabed biota revealed through quantitative ROV transects emphasised the importance of disturbance patterns in shaping the canyon ecosystems.