The bio-acoustic sampling will target vessels operating in areas of high importance due to predicted impacts from climate change or of ecological significant. The Tasman Sea is a high priority as the region is predicted to be a globally significant region for increased temperature change. Likewise the Eastern Australian boundary current region is of high importance to Regional understanding of ecosystems with complementary recording with repeated CPR routes.

In Southern Ocean waters the data collections would also from part of the Sentinel and SOOS initiatives. It connects three of the world’s major ocean basins as well as the upper and lower limbs of the overturning circulation. It is one of the most important regions for carbon dioxide drawdown and has shown some evidence of change over the past several decades, (see deepwater node document). The Southern Ocean is also regionally significant through climatic interactions with the Australian continent. Major krill, squid and finfish fisheries already exist in the region with the potential for expansion.