Report: Pelagic Regionalistion - National Marine Bioregionalisation Integration Project

The current National Marine Bioregionalisation project, coordinated by the Nation Oceans Office, consists of both pelagic (water column) and benthic (seafloor) components. The intended outcome of the National Marine Bioregionalisation is a set of bioregions for the Australian Marine Jurisdiction which will underpin a spatial framework to support planning and management of Australia's oceans. This report outlines the work on the pelagic regionalisation. The Pelagic Integration project aims to map and describe pelagic bioregions of the Australian Marine Jurisdiction (AMJ) with a particular focus on regions offshore of the continental shelf. Where possible it will complement the existing shelf pelagic bioregions of the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA v3.3). In the process of the current regionalisation, we expect to produce datasets and analyses that may assist with a future update of the IMCRA pelagic bioregions and their descriptions. Hence, results of this project should not be extrapolated onto the continental shelf. CSIRO Marine Research has responsibility for the Pelagic Integration as part of its contribution to a Consortium (along with the National Oceans Office and Geosciences Australia (GA)) effort in the NMB integration projects.