Established in 2018, AusSeabed is a collaborative national seabed mapping initiative focused on delivering freely accessible seabed mapping data and coordinating efforts to map the gaps across the Australian maritime region of responsibility. AusSeabed is driven by a cross-sector steering committee bringing together organisations from the government, academia and private sectors to ensure an inclusive and diverse representation of the seabed mapping community. This Annual Progress Report provides a detailed account of the progress made against the AusSeabed program activities planned for 2021/22. A summary of highlights can be found in the Annual Highlights Report.

This resource includes bathymetry data acquired during the Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park bathymetry survey using Kongsberg EM302 and EM710 multibeam sonar systems. Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park bathymetry survey (FK200429/GA4861) was led by Dr. Rob Beaman (James Cook University) and a team of scientists from Geoscience Australia, The University of Sydney, and the Queensland Museum, aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor, from the 29th of April to 11th of June 2020. The primary objective of the survey was to map in detail the Queensland Plateau, including the steeper reef flanks and target the enigmatic seabed features, like the numerous drowned reef pinnacles and long meandering channels on the plateau surface. The second objective of this survey was to investigate the extent of the bleaching on the mesophotic or deeper reef, and if these reefs could act as a potential refuge for the Great Barrier Reef. The survey also aimed at providing insights into the geological evolution and biodiversity of Australia’s marine frontier. This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes. This dataset is published with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia.

Established in 2018, AusSeabed is a collaborative national seabed mapping initiative focused on delivering freely accessible seabed mapping data and coordinating efforts to map the gaps across the Australian maritime region of responsibility. AusSeabed is driven by a cross-sector steering committee bringing together organisations from the government, academia and private sectors to ensure an inclusive and diverse representation of the seabed mapping community. The Annual Highlights Report presents the key achievements of the AusSeabed program over the 2021/22 financial year. The report is structured in five sections, the first four are aligned to the 2021/22 work plan objectives and the fifth highlights engagement activities over the past year.

This ESRI map (web) service contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Cairns Seamount within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.

This OGC Web Map Service (WMS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Cairns Seamount within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.

This OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for the Beagle Marine Park (South-east Marine Parks Network) and is intended for use by marine park managers, regulators and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in Nanson et al. (2023); eCat Record 147976.

This OGC Web Map Service (WMS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Flinders Reefs within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.

A benthic sediment sampling survey (GA0356) to the nearshore areas of outer Darwin Harbour was undertaken in the period from 03 July to 14 September 2016. Partners involved in the survey included Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources within the Northern Territory Government (NT DENR) (formerly the Department of Land and Resource Management (DLRM)). This survey forms part of a four year (2014-2018) science program aimed at improving knowledge about the marine environments in the regions around Darwin and Bynoe Harbour’s through the collection and collation of baseline data that will enable the creation of thematic habitat maps to underpin marine resource management decisions. This project is being led by the Northern Territory Government and is supported by the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project, in collaboration with - and co-investment from GA and AIMS. The program builds upon an NT Government project (2011-2011) which saw the collection of baseline data (multibeam echosounder data, sediment samples and video transects) from inner Darwin Harbour. This dataset comprises total oxygen uptake and total carbon dioxide flux measurements from core incubation experiments on seabed sediments. Radke, L., Smit, N., Li, J., Nicholas, T., Picard, K. 2017. Outer Darwin Harbour Shallow Water Sediment Survey 2016: GA0356 – Post-survey report. Record 2017/06. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2017.006 This research was funded by the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project via the Northern Territory (NT) Government Department of Land Resource Management (DLRM) (now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)), and co-investment from Geoscience Australia (GA) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). We are grateful to the following agencies for providing boats and staff, and to the following personal for help with sample acquisition: NT DENR (Danny Low Choy and Rachel Groome), NT Fisheries (Wayne Baldwin, Quentin Allsop, Shane Penny, Chris Errily, Sean Fitzpatrick and Mark Grubert), NT Parks and Wildlife (Ray Chatto, Stewart Weorle, and Luke McLaren) and the Larrakia Rangers (Nelson Tinoco, Kyle Lewfat, Alan Mummery and Steven Dawson). Special thanks to the skippers Danny Low Choy, Wayne Baldwin, Stewart Weorle and Luke McLaren whose seamanship strongly guided the execution of this survey. AIMS generously allowed use of the aquarium and laboratory at the Arafura Timor Sea Research Facility, and Simon Harries and Kirsty McAllister helped with the setup. We would also like to acknowledge and thank GA colleagues including: Matt Carey, Ian Atkinson and Craig Wintle (Engineering and Applied Scientific Services) for the organisation of field supplies and the design of the new core incubation set-up. This dataset is published with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia

The Geoscience Australia’s Semi-automated Morphological Mapping Tools (GA-SaMMT) were developed as ArcGIS Pro Python tools using Python 3+ to map ten bathymetric high and eight bathymetric low Morphology Features (defined in Dove et al., 2020; cf. Nanson et al., 2023). These tools comprise seven toolboxes: 1. The BathymetricHigh.pyt toolbox is used to map bathymetric high features, and includes three tools: (i) TPI Tool Bathymetric High; (ii) TPI LMI Tool Bathymetric High; (iii) and Openness Tool Bathymetric High. 2. The BathymetricLow.pyt toolbox is used to map bathymetric low features, and includes three tools: (i) TPI Tool Bathymetric Low; (ii) TPI CI Tool Bathymetric Low; and (iii) Openness Tool Bathymetric Low. 3. The AddAttributes.pyt toolbox is used to calculate attributes for bathymetric high and low features, and includes six tools: (i) Add Shape Attributes High Tool; (ii) Add Shape Attributes Low Tool; (iii) Add Topographic Attributes High Tool; (iv) Add Topographic Attributes Low Tool; (v) Add Profile Attributes High Tool; and (vi) Add Profile Attributes Low Tool. 4. The AddAttributesFast.pyt toolbox is also used to calculate attributes for bathymetric high and low features, and has the advantage (over the AddAttributes.pyt toolbox) of having multiprocessing capabilities. This version of the add attributes toolbox contains four tools: (i) Add Shape Attributes High Tool Fast; (ii) Add Shape Attributes Low Tool Fast; (iii) Add Profile Attributes High Tool Fast; and (iv) Add Profile Attributes Low Tool Fast. The two add topographic attributes tools do not require multiprocessing capabilities to improve their performance. 5. The ClassificationFeature.pyt toolbox is used to classify bathymetric high and low features into Morphological Feature categories defined in Dove et al. (2020), and includes two tools: (i) Classify Bathymetric High Features; and (ii) Classify Bathymetric Low Features. 6. The Accessory_Tools.pyt toolbox provides four accessory tools to help the mapping processes: (i) Merge Connected Features Tool; (ii) Connect Nearby Linear Features Tool; (iii) Connect Nearby Linear HF Features Tool; and (iv) Update Feature Boundary Tool. 7. The Surface.pyt toolbox is used to map three classes of Morphological surfaces (Dove et al., 2020), and includes two tools: (i) Morphological Surface Tool Bathymetry; and (ii) Morphological Surface Tool Slope. The system and data format requirements of these ArcGIS tools are described in the tutorials and user guide that accompany the tools, which also include sampled data and step-by-step examples of their application. Further details of these tools, including their description, graphic illustrations and usages, and python code examples, are also available in their metadata. These tools have been applied to many study areas with real world applications, including those published in Huang et al. (2023) which should be used as the key reference to the GA-SaMMT. Dove, D., Nanson, R., Bjarnadóttir, L., Guinan, J., Gafeira, J., Post, A., Dolan, M.; Stewart, H.; Arosio, R, Scott, G. (October, 2020). A two-part seabed geomorphology classification scheme (v.2); Part 1: morphology features glossary. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4075248 Nanson, R., Arosio, R., Gafeira, J., McNeil, M., Dove, D., Bjarnadóttir, L., Dolan, M., Guinan, J., Post, A., Webb, J., & Nichol, S. (2023). A two-part seabed geomorphology classification scheme; Part 2: Geomorphology classification framework and glossary (Version 1.0) (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7804019 Huang, Z., Nanson, R., McNeil, M., Wenderlich, M., Gafeira, J., Post, A, Nichol, S., 2023. Rule-based semi-automated tools for mapping seabed morphology from bathymetry data, Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1236788.

A benthic sediment sampling survey (GA0356) to the nearshore areas of outer Darwin Harbour was undertaken in the period from 03 July to 14 September 2016. Partners involved in the survey included Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources within the Northern Territory Government (NT DENR) (formerly the Department of Land and Resource Management (DLRM)). This survey forms part of a four year (2014-2018) science program aimed at improving knowledge about the marine environments in the regions around Darwin and Bynoe Harbour’s through the collection and collation of baseline data that will enable the creation of thematic habitat maps to underpin marine resource management decisions. This project is being led by the Northern Territory Government and is supported by the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project, in collaboration with - and co-investment from GA and AIMS. The program builds upon an NT Government project (2011-2011) which saw the collection of baseline data (multibeam echosounder data, sediment samples and video transects) from inner Darwin Harbour (Siwabessy et al. 2015). This dataset comprises porosity and chlorin measurements (concentrations and indices) on seabed sediments. Radke, L., Smit, N., Li, J., Nicholas, T., Picard, K. 2017. Outer Darwin Harbour Shallow Water Sediment Survey 2016: GA0356 – Post-survey report. Record 2017/06. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2017.006 This research was funded by the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project via the Northern Territory (NT) Government Department of Land Resource Management (DLRM) (now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)), and co-investment from Geoscience Australia (GA) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). We are grateful to the following agencies for providing boats and staff, and to the following personal for help with sample acquisition: NT DENR (Danny Low Choy and Rachel Groome), NT Fisheries (Wayne Baldwin, Quentin Allsop, Shane Penny, Chris Errily, Sean Fitzpatrick and Mark Grubert), NT Parks and Wildlife (Ray Chatto, Stewart Weorle, and Luke McLaren) and the Larrakia Rangers (Nelson Tinoco, Kyle Lewfat, Alan Mummery and Steven Dawson). Special thanks to the skippers Danny Low Choy, Wayne Baldwin, Stewart Weorle and Luke McLaren whose seamanship strongly guided the execution of this survey. AIMS generously allowed use of the aquarium and laboratory at the Arafura Timor Sea Research Facility, and Simon Harries and Kirsty McAllister helped with the setup. We would also like to acknowledge and thank GA colleagues including: Matt Carey, Ian Atkinson and Craig Wintle (Engineering and Applied Scientific Services) for the organisation of field supplies and the design of the new core incubation set-up. This dataset is published with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia