Many government agencies refer to ecosystem monitoring as a core goal in their policy documents and plans, and yet few undertake it due to the challenges of assessing broad biodiversity in the oceans. Given the cumulative pressures on the marine environment there is the need for a tool which can collect an ecosystem-wide overview. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is one tool which has the potential to sample the whole tree of life and has increasingly been adopted by researchers. Rapid advances in eDNA sequencing technologies have seen the number of techniques and environmental applications increase year-on-year. However, eDNA research has not translated into government policies, road maps or strategies. There appears to be a disconnect between research outcomes, data, and the application of eDNA tools to ecosystem monitoring. The result across Australia (and other countries) is that somewhat of an impasse exists when it comes to the adoption of eDNA into the marine management toolbox. To understand this better, we explored what the barriers were through undertaking four focal groups with marine park and fisheries managers and scientists, allowing for detailed exploration and discussion. This discussion was then leveraged to determine their future needs.