Advancing national standards and best practices to monitor key marine values and pressures – final report

Overview

From 2015-2021, the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub spearheaded the development and adoption of nine national standards for marine survey design and sampling. These standards, collectively known as the NESP SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), have been widely embraced by various stakeholders, including industry and international partners, and have enhanced data comparability and management efficiency at regional and national levels.

NESP Project 2.2 (Advancing national standards and best practices to monitor key marine values and pressures) focused on maintaining and updating a suite of nine SOPs while also further expanding the program to address additional national marine monitoring objectives. Our main achievement was the release of Version 3 of the SOPs (marine-sampling-field-manual.github.io), including three new SOPs: microplastics, knowledge/attitude/practice (KAP) surveys, and benthic observation survey system (BOSS) drop camera.

The new SOPs were supported by a workshop, revisions to older SOPs, website updates, and a framework for ocean best practices development. In addition, Indigenous partners shared their knowledge for the KAP and BOSS SOPs, thus laying the groundwork for future Indigenous partnerships and Indigenous-led projects using the SOPs.

This report provides a clear list of recommendations, including nominating all SOPs for international endorsement, establishing governance mechanisms for ongoing oversight, securing funding for SOP development and infrastructure, and identifying future SOP development priorities to address emerging needs such as offshore renewable energy monitoring. These efforts will ensure the transparency, effectiveness, and long-term sustainability of marine sampling best practices in Australia and beyond.