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Conservation of Australian Marine Invertebrates

The Australian Museum has prepared an overview, for Environment Australia, of the conservation status of marine invertebrates in Australia and its territories. It covers non-vertebrate animals living in ocean waters surrounding the Australian mainland, Tasmania, offshore islands (Lord Howe and Norfolk off the east coast, Christmas and Cocos in the Indian Ocean, and Heard and Macquarie in the subantarctic region) and the Australian Antarctic Territory. Visit the site Overview of the Conservation of Australian Marine Invertebrates.

The overview will cover topics such as:

• The composition of the Australian fauna (What are the invertebrates? How many species are there? What habitats do they occupy?);
• The importance of marine invertebrate species and biodiversity, both for humans and in natural ecosystems (Why conserve invertebrates?);
• Which invertebrate species in Australia are of conservation concern (Threatened species);
• Communities and habitats that are under threat or need to be conserved;
• Major threatening processes;
• Approaches to invertebrate conservation, including marine protected areas; and
• Information, research, legislation and policy

The scope of the document is huge, both in terms of the geographic area involved as well as the diversity of organisms and habitats to be covered. Australia has one of the world's longest national coastlines, and one of its largest marine jurisdictions - a total area of around 16 million square kilometres, approximately twice the size of the Australian mainland. It also has a unique and extraordinarily diverse invertebrate fauna, much of which is still unknown or only poorly known to science.

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