Review of research and data relevant to marine environmental management of Australia's North West Shelf.

The region of interest for this study was Australias North West Shelf, extending from the inter-tidal zone to the continental shelf break, with particular focus on data relevant to the area between North West Cape and Port Hedland. The principal resource used for identification of existing data and information was the bibliography assembled by Jernakoff et al. (2006). This document provides an overview of the relevance of existing information to the North West Shelf Marine Environmental Management Study (NWSMEMS). It identifies gaps in knowledge that are likely to be important to the NWSMEMS and makes recommendations for addressing these gaps. The review presents information on the marine environment, grouped into physical, chemical and biological themes. This summary at the beginning of the document presents our major conclusions about the relevance of existing knowledge and about major gaps in information, and our recommendations for future research.