Sensitive marine animals have protected status under the Commonwealth’s EPBC Act and include species of sharks and rays, mammals such as whales, seals, dugongs, marine reptiles such as turtles and sea snakes, and seabirds. Measures of status and trends in abundance are often collected for such species because of their conservation interest or status. With the exception of these groups, and commercially exploited fish species, few marine fauna are monitored on a regular basis. Even with protected status, population monitoring is the exception rather than the rule.