NESP MB Project C5: Australian Shipping Risk Maps for Marine Fauna

The NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub project provides spatial risk assessments for large marine fauna from shipping activities across Australia. Outputs include fine-scale shipping density and speed maps from 2012 onward, a national map of small vessel distribution, and species-specific risk profiles. This research aims to inform environmental decision-making under the EPBC Act.

Use Cases

• Modeling ship strike risk for marine species based on shipping density and speed maps
• Assessing cumulative noise impact on marine fauna using processed AIS data
• Identifying regions of concern for species protection based on coarse-scale risk profiles
• Informing marine spatial planning and port development decisions with fine-scale spatial risk maps

Strengths

• Includes fine-scale shipping density and speed maps for Australia from 2012 to the present
• Aims to produce both fine-scale and coarse-scale risk maps tailored to available species distribution data
• Project outputs are designed to directly inform management strategies under the EPBC Act

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Analysis of AIS data and species distribution models, as described in project reports.

Time Range

2012 to present for shipping data

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-08 23:00:59.624194; freshness should be verified

Geography

Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)