The Marine chapter of the 2021 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "State and Trend of canyons". A PDF of the full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided) is downloadable in the "On-line Resources" section of this record as "EXPERT ASSESSMENT 2021 - Canyons" DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY/PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Submarine canyons are a class of geomorphic seabed feature used as a physical surrogate for biodiversity distribution during Australia’s marine planning process and in designing the network of Australian Marine Parks. They are one of two ‘special’ feature types (together with seamounts) (Harris et al., 2008) considered to have potentially high influence on and value for marine biodiversity distribution and protection. It is these characteristics that have been used to define some canyons as Marine Key Ecological Features (Department of the Environment, 2012). Submarine canyons are located on all sides of the Australian continental margin. They form deeply incised networks of valleys and channels that extend from the continental shelf edge (<200 m water depth) to the foot of the continental slope (>4000 m water depth). Based on a 2014 compilation of all available bathymetric data for the Australian EEZ, 713 submarine canyons are identified on the continental margin, with an additional 40 canyons that fringe islands within Australia’s external territories (Table 1; Huang et al., 2014). The majority (618) of the identified canyons are classified as ‘blind canyons’, meaning that they are located only on the continental slope and typically with their heads in water depths of ~500 to 1000 m. The other 95 canyons are classified as ‘shelf-incising’ canyons that extend from the slope and incise the continental shelf edge, with canyon heads that define an abrupt depth transition between the slope and shelf of up to 400 m. Between Marine Planning Regions canyons vary in number and spatial distribution. Thus, canyons are most abundant in the South-East (206 canyons) and South-West (204) Marine Regions, with the latter having the higher proportion (51) of shelf-incising canyons. The Temperate East has 124 canyons. In contrast, the North-West and North Marine Regions incorporate 90 and 6 canyons, respectively. Within canyons, the seabed is characteristically irregular with underlying substrate exposed along steep canyon walls, in places forming undersea cliffs hundreds of metres high. These localised areas of hard rock outcrop provide a stable surface for benthic biological communities, including sponges, corals and associated sessile flora and feeding grounds for demersal fishes (Schlacher et al., 2007; Fromont and Pisera, 2011; Currie and Sorokin, 2014; Kloser et al., 2014; Huang et al., 2018). Canyons also provide a pathway for the transport of sediments and nutrients (and pollutants), not only laterally from the shelf to the deep sea, but also vertically via upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean toward the shelf (Kampf, 2010; Currie et al. 2012). An assessment of the habitat potential of submarine canyons on the Australian margin found that shelf-incising canyons have higher potential for supporting benthic communities than those confined to the slope (Huang et al., 2018). Canyons with particularly high habitat potential are located mainly offshore of the Great Barrier Reef and the NSW coast, on the eastern margin of Tasmania and Bass Strait, and on the southern Australian margin. Many of these canyons have complex bottom topography, are likely to have high primary and secondary production, and experience less disturbance to seabed sediment by near-bed currents; this latter factor favoring infaunal communities. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT National Submarine Canyons of Australia [Geoscience Australia data product] 2021 SOE

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of habitats and communities - water column, slope (250 m -700 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The major determinants of pelagic habitat can be considered to be temperature (T), salinity (S), light, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and food availability. The slope waters around Australia are generally warm, saline, well illuminated, low in nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. The primary pressures affecting the pelagic biota in slope waters are related to climatic cycles (e.g. ENSO) and long term climate change impacting on T, S, DO, pH and fishing. The slope waters are particularly sensitive to changes in our boundary currents, the EAC and the Leeuwin which generally flow south, seaward of the shelf break. The pelagic productivity of the slope waters provides most of the food to animals in these waters and on the bottom. The shelf edge canyons can enhance upwelling or ‘capture’ eddies that act to focus phytoplankton into these features. Data collection is sparse but IMOS continuous plankton recorder (CPR) routes around Australia sample largely from this region. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Data are computed from the level 3 (L3) daily global products using one merging method following Maritorena and Siegel, (2005). Details can be found at http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT This assessment uses observations from a greater range of spatial and temporal scales allowing a much better assessment of current state and trends to be made. There is also a statistical analysis of temporal change in zooplankton biomass.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of habitats and communities – Seamounts". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Seamounts (undersea mountains, often with volcanic origin) provide ‘oasis’ habitats of hard substratum and are widely considered to represent sites of elevated biomass and productivity in the deep ocean. Their habitats can support dense aggregations of corals and associated high biodiversity; these represent vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME) (e.g. UNGA 2006; Clark et al 2011). The geological definition of a seamount (elevation of >1000 m) has no relevance to biodiversity valuation because smaller features are frequently found to support high, if not the highest, biodiversity. An ecological definition (e.g. Pitcher et al. 2007) is recommended. Australia’s marine realm encompasses many seamounts; the best known are the Tasmanian seamounts and the Tasmantid seamount chain. Additional seamounts have been discovered and mapped on the Lord Howe Rise and the Norfolk Ridge, as well as on Australia’s southern margin in the GAB. Seamount communities to ~1500 m depth in the south-east and south-west regions are associated with biogenic habitats formed mostly by the stony coral Solenosmilia variabilis (Koslow et al 2000; Thresher et al. 2014). Its matrix of dead and life coral, built up to a layer of at least 1.6 m thickness in places, forms a habitat for other corals, urchins, brittle- and snakestars and crustaceans (Thresher et al. 2014). Communities and habitats on deeper reaches of seamounts (>1500 m) are less well studied; they are usually less diverse and sparser, although areas of extraordinary high biomass have been observed in the south-east region (Thresher et al. 2014). The seamounts in the Tasmantid chain are mapped and well used by various commercial fisheries, but their epifaunal communities remain poorly documented (Williams et al. 2012). DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT This assessment is based on data derived from Marine National Facility Surveys described in MarLIN (http://www.marine.csiro.au/marlin/search.html) and accessible through the CSIRO Data trawler (http://www.cmar.csiro.au/data/trawler/). Links to specific data sets are provided in the "On-line resources" section of this record. • Voyage of Discovery north-west (SS05/2007) • Voyage of Discovery south-west (SS07/2005 & SS10/2005) • Tasmanian seamounts surveys (SS01/2000, SS04/2006 & SS02/2007, SS01/2008 & TT01/2008) • Habitat Mapping (SS01/2000, SS04/2004) • Habitat and population assessment of giant crabs (2003 - 2005) • NORFANZ survey of Lord Howe Rise and Norfolk Ridge (TAN0308 - NORFANZ) 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Very good-Poor Assessment trend: Stable- Improving Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT There is substantial information on the impact of trawling on seamounts in the South-East Marine Region available.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of species and groups – Epipelagic fish species". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL SPECIES/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Australia’s coastal small pelagic fishes (<50 cm) include species such as Australian Sardines, Maray, Blue and Sandy Sprats, Australian anchovy, scads, Jack Mackerel, hardyheads, silversides, Blue mackerel, Australian Herring and Redbait. Tropical and temperate assemblages are comprised of different species and there are also regional differences in species composition (Hobday et al. 2009). This assessment refers only to temperate species in the East, South-east and South-west regions. Blue Mackerel, Common Jack Mackerel, Redbait and Australian Sardine (off eastern Australia only) are targeted by the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery. The SPF is managed in two Zones: East spanning half of the East and eastern South-east regions and the West spanning the South west and western half of South-east). State fisheries primarily target Australian Sardine but may also take Australian Anchovy, Blue Mackerel, sprats and Maray. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT The assessment is based on data and analyses published in the peer review literature, stock assessment reports and minutes of the meetings of the Small Pelagic Fishery Scientific Panel. Details of specific data sets used to generate the assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Additional fishery catch data, more recent stock assessments.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "Pressures on the marine environment associated with marine mining". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESSURE A wide variety of mineral resources exist within Australia’s maritime jurisdiction (see Table 1 in attached Expert Assessment). Mining of those resources however, remains an 'emerging industry'. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Published papers and reports. Assessment has been completed by literature review. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Low impact Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Evidence and consensus too low to make an assessment Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Climate and system variability as a pressure on the marine environment was not assessed in 2011.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of ecological processes – trophic structures and relationships". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT For this assessment, food web structure and function as defined by diet and modelling studies (which synthesis much of the available information) have been used to evaluate the status and trends for trophic structures and relationships. The status and outlook for the structure of Australian marine ecosystems is highly variable. Food webs are naturally dynamic, through time and space (e.g. Griffiths et al. 2009), and human pressure on them has varied around Australia over the past two centuries, altering trophic structures to differing degrees (Dell et al. 2013, GBRMPA 2014). Food webs studies have primarily focused on coastal and shelf waters (e.g. Salini et al 1998, Bulman et al. 2001, DofWWA 2009), with much less coverage of deep water food webs. Diet studies have only occurred intermittently and few studies have been subsequently repeated (e.g. recent resampling of fish diets on the shelf of SE Australia; CSIRO unpublished). Consequently, understanding the true magnitude of inter-annual variation in diets is low and there is little capacity to be sure of dietary changes through time. Modelling studies (Fulton et al. 2005, Klaer 2005) suggest there has been trophic restructuring of food webs in south-eastern Australia over the last century, particularly as a result of the intensification of commercial fisheries up to the 1990s. The reduction in fishing pressure, particularly over the last 5-10 years (Flood et al. 2014, Patterson et al. 2015) will likely, eventually, allow the recovery of trophic structures. However, a complete recovery is unlikely given the multitude of on-going pressures (e.g. remaining fishing pressure, both recreational and commercial, shipping, coastal habitat modification, pollution, etc.) and because some highly depleted species (e.g. eastern gemfish) have failed to recover from past overexploitation; which itself may be related to shifts in trophic connections with predators and prey (TSSC 2009). In addition, climate change is reshaping south eastern ecosystems, with shifts in species ranges (Sunday et al. 2015) and the realisation of new trophic interactions (e.g. shifts in octopus diets; Briceno et al. 2015), as omnivorous species appear to shift more rapidly than carnivores (Sunday et al. 2015). Eastern Australian ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef are highly modified (Butler and Jernakoff 1999, GBRMPA 2014). Amongst the most obviously shifted systems are around population centres and in the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBRMPA 2014). As elsewhere, fishing pressure has eased over the past 5 years, but other pressures (e.g. from increasing development) have increased (AIMS 2014). Overall trophic structures likely remain highly modified, both by past and present removal of predatory species and shifts in abundance of basal species, due to eutrophication or habitat removal (GBRMPA 2014, Fulton and Gorton 2014). The ecosystems of northern, western, southwestern and southern Australia see less direct, and spatially more variable, pressure than those in the east and south east. Over the past 3 decades, fishing pressure in the region has significantly declined, and has continued to do so (though at a reduced rate) over the past 5 years (Prince et al. 2008, Patterson et al. 2014, Fletcher and Santoro 2015). Development of other sectors (e.g. shipping) has grown, but largely concentrated on specific locations (AIMS

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of habitats and communities - water column, abyss (>700 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The water column is home to a diversity of communities. The relative biomass of the major communities is estimated to be 300:75:10:1 for phytoplankton, bacteria, zooplankton and higher predators in the southern ocean (Marchant 2002). For these dominant communities the major determinants of habitat quality is considered to be temperature (T), salinity (S), light, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and food availability. SOE assessments for fish, EBPC listed species, marine mammals and benthic communities are found at elsewhere in this chapter. The phytoplankton community dominates the water column in terms of biomass and is the basis of all food for the other communities. Phytoplankton are all produced in the illuminated upper ~ 100m of the water column with light, phytoplankton biomass and food for other organisms generally declining exponentially with depth (Rex et al., 2006). At intermediate depths there is typically an oxygen and salinity minimum plus a nutrient maximum while deeper waters are progressively colder. The major potential threats to the water column as habitat can be considered to be: warming of ocean, declining nutrients in the surface mixed layer (SLM), reductions in primary production, declining DO (Talley et al., 2016), decreasing pH and over fishing. The SLM from Port Hedland to Cape Howe has risen ~ 1°C from 1993 to 2013 (Foster et al., 2014), and portions of the SW region were 3°C hotter during February 2011 than normal (Pearce and Feng 2013). Open ocean phytoplankton biomass and primary production have generally declined at mid latitudes (Siegel et al., 2013, Signorini et al., 2015) although they have increased in the SE region (Matear et al., 2013; Kelly et al., 2015). There is very little evidence available of any other biotic responses from the water column to these climatic pressures although concerns over acidification continue to grow (e.g. Mongin et al., 2016) especially for deep sea corals (Thresher et al., 2011; Thresher et al., 2015). DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Chlorophyll a data are computed from the level 3 (L3) daily global products using one merging method following Maritorena and Siegel (2005). Details can be found at http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html Zooplankton data are from Australia’s National Reference Stations operated by the Integrated Marine Observing System. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT This assessment uses observations from a greater range of spatial and temporal scales allowing a better assessment of current state and trends to be made. The time series of observations is becoming long enough to distinguish temporal variability associated with shorter term climate cycles (e.g. ENSO) from the longer term but relatively gradual impacts of climate change. These longer term trends are more apparent today than ever before. Consequently the SOE grade applicable to an increasing

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of habitats and communities – seabed, inner shelf (0 - 25 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The inner shelf seabed consist of a mix of habitats that range from rocky reef through coral reef, seagrass, algae and soft sediment, although this assessment focusses on open coast unvegetated soft sediment habitats on the inner shelf (0-25 m depth) as the other inshore habitats are assessed in other SoE metrics. Note that this assessment differs slightly from that in 2011 that focussed on the 0-50 m depth range, and it is assumed was also confined to soft sediment habitat. It concluded that the overall condition was good at a national scale, but poor in the SE and East, was likely to be stable, but it was based on limited evidence and trends from the previous assessment. Inner shelf soft sediment habitats are usually dominated by coarse to fine sand in exposed coast locations but can grade to finer silts in sheltered habitats with nearby estuarine inputs and with depth. In specific locations, significant habitat mapping and/or biodiversity sampling programs have substantially improved knowledge of the spatial distribution of these habitats, and have provided an initial description of their current condition (e.g. Barrett et al. 2001; Pitcher et al. 2007ab, 2016; Jordan et al. 2010, Kangas et al. 2007, Currie et al. , 2003, 2009). However, at a national scale there is currently no integration and synthesis of this information on which to base condition assessments. In addition, there is little information to assess the extent of temporal trends or habitat degradation from baseline conditions. Despite this, there are a number of threats that can be identified and assessed to determine the potential current trends. These include trawling (through physical disturbance of the seabed), sedimentation/nitrification, and the spread of introduced pest species. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Assessment is based on data and analyses published in peer reviewed literature and agency reports. Details of specific data sets used to generate the assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Not clear on what basis and how the 2011 was conducted. Note that this assessment differs slightly from the 2011 assessment which was focused on the 0-50 m depth range, and it is assumed was also confined to soft sediment habitat.

The Marine chapter of the 2021 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "State and Trend of trophic structures and relationships". A PDF of the full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided) is downloadable in the "On-line Resources" section of this record as "EXPERT ASSESSMENT 2021 - Trophic structures and relationships" DESCRIPTION OF COMMUNITY/PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Trophic relationships indicate linkages between species in food webs – who eats who. Consumers in open-ocean pelagic food webs rely on plankton at their base (Griffiths et al.., 2010; Antoine et al., 2020); inshore, benthic food webs may also have a heavy reliance on plankton (Truong et al., 2017) but can also be based on macrophytes, detritus and many invertebrate prey species (Abrantes et al., 2015). Historically, our understanding of these relationships was based on dietary studies (particularly stomach content analysis), which were undertaken sporadically in space and time. More recently, DNA techniques have been applied to stomach contents to detect prey that might not be normally identified from visual analyses, thereby expanding the food web (Berry et al., 2015). These studies may span a large number of species or focus on a subset of interest. Thus, to assemble a food web for a region, and then to assess change, requires many years of sampling, often combining data from different studies. In contrast, diet studies of single species are relatively common, and may be observed through visual observations, imagery, stomach contents, or scat analysis. These studies can reveal geographic, interannual, or long-term change, and indicate wider ecosystem change (e.g. see examples based around little penguins and pinnipeds; Chiaradia et al., 2010; Kirkwood et al., 2008). DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT No raw data analyses were used in this assessment, instead it represents a synthesis of literature published in the last 5 years. 2021 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2021 • Assessment grade: Poor-good. Variable. Assessment trend: Unclear. Variable. Confidence grade: Adequate Confidence trend: Limited Comparability: Comparable • 2016 • Assessment grade: Poor-Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence or high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence or high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT Assessment is in line with what was found in 2016.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of ecological communities/habitats – offshore banks, shoals, islands". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Assemblages of plants and animals found on offshore banks, and shoals around islands, in the 0-25 m depth range. This largely relates to reefs in the Coral Sea, Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and the offshore reefs in the north and north-west. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Reef Life Survey data were used for the current status assessment, with extensive spatial coverage of sites on most offshore banks, shoals and Island around the continent where the seabed rises to within 20 m of the surface. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high-quality evidence or high level of consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT The 2016 assessment is based on an updated and expanded dataset.