Work has been undertaken through the marine bioregional planning program to identify, describe and map biologically important areas (BIA's) for protected species under the EPBC Act. BIA's spatially and temporally define areas where protected species display biologically important behaviours (including breeding, foraging, resting or migration), based on the best available scientific information. These areas are those parts of a marine region that are particularly important for the conservation of protected species. In collecting information on BIA's the Department has explicitly aimed to collect information about known important areas and about areas that are likely to be or may be important for a protected species. This approach was taken to ensure that: the BIA's identified did not simply represent survey effort but identified areas that scientists consider are likely to be biologically important for a protected species. BIA's are accompanied by comprehensive data attributes which enable decision-makers and people proposing to undertake actions that may have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance to assess the relevance of the information to their specific circumstances. BIA's were initially captured on a regional basis and each region has a different list of regionally significant species. For more information about BIA's and their capture please refer to the Marine Bioregional plans http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/marine/marine-bioregional-plans and the associated report cards for each region.

Work has been undertaken through the marine bioregional planning program to identify, describe and map biologically important areas (BIA's) for protected species under the EPBC Act. BIA's spatially and temporally define areas where protected species display biologically important behaviours (including breeding, foraging, resting or migration), based on the best available scientific information. These areas are those parts of a marine region that are particularly important for the conservation of protected species. In collecting information on BIA's the Department has explicitly aimed to collect information about known important areas and about areas that are likely to be or may be important for a protected species. This approach was taken to ensure that: the BIA's identified did not simply represent survey effort but identified areas that scientists consider are likely to be biologically important for a protected species. BIA's are accompanied by comprehensive data attributes which enable decision-makers and people proposing to undertake actions that may have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance to assess the relevance of the information to their specific circumstances. BIA's were initially captured on a regional basis and each region has a different list of regionally significant species. For more information about BIA's and their capture please refer to the Marine Bioregional plans http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/marine/marine-bioregional-plans and the associated report cards for each region.