Marine Biologist (ANZSCO 234516)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and Core Skills Occupation List

From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.

Which lists is Marine Biologist on?

MLTSSL — Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List. The widest list — occupations on the MLTSSL can access the points-tested permanent skilled visas including the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), which needs no state nomination or employer.

CSOL — Core Skills Occupation List. The employer-sponsorship list — occupations on the CSOL can be nominated for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme 186.

Visas this occupation can access

Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Marine Biologist comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

VETASSESS describes Marine Biologist as studying the anatomy, physiology, functions, characteristics, behaviour and environments of all forms of life living in the sea and connected water bodies — a broad, life-forms-in-the-sea framing. No explicit exclusion list was found on Marine Biologist's own page in this review; its boundary with the nearest confusable code is instead stated from the other side, on Aquaculture or Fisheries Scientist's page.

Where these applications come unstuck

Aquaculture or Fisheries Scientist (234116) explicitly excludes "Marine Biologists" from its own code — so the boundary runs one direction in what was found: commercial-stock and aquaculture-productivity work does not belong here even though it is marine-life-adjacent, and it does not belong under Marine Biologist either by the same token, since that work is what 234116 is built around. General marine-life research, ecology and behaviour work is the correct centre of gravity for this code; commercial aquaculture or fisheries-stock assessment is a different occupation entirely.

An honest read on this pathway

Marine Biologist carries MLTSSL and CSOL, reaching all eight visas in this family, the same strong position as most of the life-sciences cluster and materially better than Aquaculture or Fisheries Scientist, which is CSOL-only with no points-tested route at all. That list gap is a genuine reason to get the boundary right rather than defaulting to whichever title an employer used: someone doing commercial fisheries-stock work who is actually eligible for Aquaculture or Fisheries Scientist gains nothing by describing it as marine biology, and someone doing general marine research loses real list access by describing it the other way.

VETASSESS assesses qualifications and employment separately. Both need documentation that agrees with itself. The Employment History Builder and Document Vault organise each trail before you lodge.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Marine Biologist is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.

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