A comparison was made of sediments and associated macrobenthos at sites sampled within 42 fish farm leases distributed across Tasmania. Several key biotic and abiotic metrics recommended in previous studies for assessing environmental impacts of fish farm waste were investigated.

Projects including exploratory trawl surveys of the shelf and slope waters off southern Australia, targeted studies of specific fisheries, e.g. trawl fisheries for blue grenadier and orange roughy, purse seine fishery for jack mackerel, gillnet fishery for blue warehou, the coastal reef fishery for live fish fishery, inshore shark fishery, along with commercial catch sampling (on board and market sampling) have yielded an extensive dataset that includes biological, distribution and abundance information for a diverse range of finfish species from South East Australia. These data have been compiled into a single database and cover collections made between the late 1970s and mid 1990s. Note, selected data for key species (e.g. banded morwong, bastard and striped trumpeter) have been extracted and uploaded into Access databases (refer to scalefish research database, post mid-1990s).

Data collected to measure foraging and reproductive success. Stored as time series data including mass, condition (fat stores), length, girth, offspring survival and growth. Data collected and methodology used varies depending on species.

Stable isotope data, fatty acid and diet data was collected from a number of predator species in the southern ocean. Data was collected from blood, blubber, feathers and whisker samples

The impacts of a small, free-field, surface explosion from a ship scuttling, on two crustacean species was examined. The southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) and the spotted shore crab (Paragrapsus gaimardii) were used to compare the effects on crustaceans in a controlled experiment on animals distributed up to 500 m from the blasts. Methods for assessing damage included; mortality, behavioural experiments, and physiological assessments.

The southern calamari acoustic telemetry data-set includes information on the tagging and tracking of southern calamari on the east coast of Tasmania. The information includes biological information of tagged squid, deployment information of acoustic receivers and tracking data of squid movement.

Underwater video technology was used to observe marine mammal interactions (seals, in particular Australian fur seals) within midwater trawl nets. A camera system was placed inside the trawl net in the vicinity of a Seal Excluder Device, designed to prevent megafauna from entering the codend of the net and provide an escape point. Digital video data was described according to a range of operational, catch and interaction fields, and made time-specific to each trawl shot. Data is linked to commercial catch and effort data providing operational, environmental and catch information.