WAMSI surveys Shark Bay values

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A research team, surveying values that are important to the people of Shark Bay, is finding a variety of views are attached to the World Heritage area famous for its marine life and ancient stromatolites, with an economy that largely relies on the success of tourism and fishing industries.

More than 30 members of the community were surveyed last week in this first round of interviews  including representatives from local and state government, fishing and tourism business owners, long-term residents and Indigenous rangers.

The Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) will continue to conduct interviews over the coming weeks to determine the values, issues and concerns.

WAMSI Research Director Dr Jenny Shaw said initial indications were that there is a broad range of views across Shark Bay.

“Values held by the people of Shark Bay were varied but some common themes have begun to emerge,” Dr Shaw said.  “There was widespread awareness of the massive seagrass loss from the 2011 marine heatwave and concerns about how that might have affected any changes in the bay. Tourism and fishing were also common themes.

“What we’ll do first is collect the research that’s already been done to look at whether some of the answers can be found in those bodies of work.

“Once we’ve brought together all the existing research, we can identify where there might be gaps in knowledge that relate to the values we’ve identified in our interviews. We’ll then develop a comprehensive science plan for Shark Bay to address those gaps.

“It’s a large and complex strategy to develop a comprehensive plan to respond to environmental pressures facing Shark Bay but it’s an important exercise to complete, especially now with increasing tourism,” Dr Shaw said.

The RAC Monkey Mia Resort recently doubled its capacity from around 600 to 1200 guests per night. It’s estimated that the resort accommodates less than one third of the total number of visitors who enter the national park to see the dolphins.

This week’s Fishing Fiesta will see the return of some 100 recreational fishers and their families to the town of Denham.

Bag limits for some fish species in Shark Bay are higher than tourist destinations further south, making the region an attractive option for recreational fishers throughout the year.

The Shark Bay Stakeholder Values report and gap analysis is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3! – One Ten East log

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One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator are being posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage.

By Prof Lynnath Beckley

The RV Investigator departed Fremantle yesterday afternoon after loading equipment and supplies for our month-long voyage as part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition. Everyone is finding their sea legs and adapting to the 24/7, 12 hours on and 12 hours off watch system.

Today, as we traverse the 1000 km towards our first station on 110°E, we stopped to do some equipment testing and personnel training so that everyone could become familiar with the equipment, procedures and safety involved with oceanographic sampling.

We are currently about 120 km west of Cape Leeuwin, one of the world’s “Great Capes”. Remarkably, at Cape Leeuwin there is a plaque commemorating the fact that on 6th December 1801, Captain Mathew Flinders, Commander of HMAS Investigator, sighted Cape Leeuwin and started mapping the Australian coast. Now, on the modern 93m RV Investigator, we are on our way to map the south-east Indian Ocean repeating an oceanographic voyage conducted way back in May and June 1963 by the HMAS Diamantina as part of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition.

“Lights, sound, camera, action” could well have been the call today as we started our testing. Prof David Antoine’s optics team from Curtin University got their many instruments designed to examine light in the ocean up and running. Likewise, using sonobuoys, Curt and Micheline Jenner are already busy monitoring sound from whales as part of their ongoing work for the Australian Department of Defence. Micheline is also our resident photographer and has been busy with her brace of cameras documenting the activities of our 40 scientists and technicians.

We also tested the CTD rosette which is a critical piece of equipment for all the researchers as we document the physical, chemical and biological properties of the water column. When it is brought back on board, it has over 400 L of water sampled from a range of depths in the ocean from which we can examine nutrients, microbes, genetics, pigments and get water to run a range of experiments such as primary production, nitrogen uptake and grazing by micro-zooplankton.

The zooplankton team were also busy testing their extensive arsenal of nets of various configurations and mesh sizes so that they can examine the poorly understood pelagic south-east Indian Ocean food web from tiny phytoplankton through to deep sea lantern fishes.

This research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.

Be sure to follow the daily posts of our One Ten East Logs from the IN2019_V03 aboard RV Investigator at https://iioe-2.incois.gov.in and www.wamsi.org.au .

Lesson plans put WAMSI data in schools

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Lesson plans taking data from real research projects are now online to provide students with the opportunity to develop their data science skills based on crocodile and whale surveys.

An initiative by Western Australian Marine Science Institution Data Manager Luke Edwards working with Kimberley Marine Research Program project leader Kelly Waples, Education Services Australia’s Richard Martin and Australian Data Science Education Institute’s Dr Linda McIver has produced a series of online educational resources on Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

It provides a resource for teachers to assist them to develop data science skills using engaging real-life datasets.  It also helps teachers deliver the new Digital Technologies curriculum and contributes to the Digital Technologies Hub resources.

“Having data resources available to teachers based on actual research results from the Western Australian marine environment is very rare,” Luke Edwards said. “Using real data provides students with much more motivation to learn data science skills and solve real life problems.”

“We’re also producing some career profiles on our WA scientists to show students the background some of our scientists are from and the pathways they have taken to enter their profession.”

The resource was launched during Data Science Week and is available to primary and secondary teachers to use in their classrooms.

Lesson plans for years 5-6 and 7-8 using datasets on whales and crocodiles are now available to teachers online at Education Australia’s Digital Technologies Hub with lesson plans on dugongs and turtles soon to me made available.

The education resources have some great ideas for assessment in Digital Technologies. Each topic shows a sequence of learning with a summary, brief description, suggested learning activities, supporting resources and assessment ideas.

Data Science Week aims to bring together a community of data scientists across Australia to network and discuss trending topics and ideas across domains. This year’s events showcased a range of organisations including the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and WA Data Science Innovation Hub with a focus on women in data science.

The online education resources are based on data produced for four of the 23 projects conducted as part of WAMSI’s Kimberley Marine Research Program.

WAMSI surveys Shark Bay values

/in , , , /by

A research team, surveying values that are important to the people of Shark Bay, is finding a variety of views are attached to the World Heritage area famous for its marine life and ancient stromatolites, with an economy that largely relies on the success of tourism and fishing industries.

More than 30 members of the community were surveyed last week in this first round of interviews  including representatives from local and state government, fishing and tourism business owners, long-term residents and Indigenous rangers.

The Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) will continue to conduct interviews over the coming weeks to determine the values, issues and concerns.

WAMSI Research Director Dr Jenny Shaw said initial indications were that there is a broad range of views across Shark Bay.

WAMSI Research Director Jenny Shaw conducts interviews at the Shark Bay Rec Centre 

 

“Values held by the people of Shark Bay were varied but some common themes have begun to emerge,” Dr Shaw said.  “There was widespread awareness of the massive seagrass loss from the 2011 marine heatwave and concerns about how that might have affected any changes in the bay. Tourism and fishing were also common themes.

“What we’ll do first is collect the research that’s already been done to look at whether some of the answers can be found in those bodies of work.

“Once we’ve brought together all the existing research, we can identify where there might be gaps in knowledge that relate to the values we’ve identified in our interviews. We’ll then develop a comprehensive science plan for Shark Bay to address those gaps.

“It’s a large and complex strategy to develop a comprehensive plan to respond to environmental pressures facing Shark Bay but it’s an important exercise to complete, especially now with increasing tourism,” Dr Shaw said.

 

Shark Bay Fish Factory

 

The RAC Monkey Mia Resort recently doubled its capacity from around 600 to 1200 guests per night. It’s estimated that the resort accommodates less than one third of the total number of visitors who enter the national park to see the dolphins.

This week’s Fishing Fiesta will see the return of some 100 recreational fishers and their families to the town of Denham.

Bag limits for some fish species in Shark Bay are higher than tourist destinations further south, making the region an attractive option for recreational fishers throughout the year.

The Shark Bay Stakeholder Values report and gap analysis is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

 

Links to related stories on Shark Bay:

Stakeholder engagement to deliver science plan for Shark Bay (WAMSI, February 2019)

Shark Bay: A World Heritage Site at catastrophic risk (The Conversation, Feb 2019)

Growing movement to highlight Shark Bay climate risks (WAMSI, September 2018)

Adapting to ecosystem change in the Shark Bay World Heritage site (WAMSI, June 2018)

Adapting to ecosystem change in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site (Workshop presentations, June 2018)

Shark Bay seagrass loss during ocean heatwave released up to 9m tonnes of CO2, scientists say (ABC, March 2018)

Will Shark Bays seagrass survive big floods? (ECOS – 2011)

New name for a tropical whip sponge

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The enigmatic body shape of a tropical whip sponge collected in Western Australia has resulted in the creation of a new family and genus of sponges.

The species was first described from Indonesia as Dendrilla lacunosa by Hentschel in 1912 and 100 years later found in abundance in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia during fieldwork for the Western Australian Marine Science Institution’s (WAMSI) Dredging Science Node project focussing on filter feeders.

This is where the puzzle begins.

Although the Western Australian specimens were identified as Dendrilla lacunosa by Dr Jane Fromont, sponge taxonomist at the Western Australian Museum (WAM), its large, whip-like morphology was extremely unusual for  Dendrilla sponges, which are usually small and delicate, so Jane decided to enlist the help of an international team to discover if this really was a Dendrilla or not.

It turns out Jane’s initial hunch that this was a strange sponge was true. With her international colleagues Drs Jean Vacelet (France), Dirk Erpenbeck and Hermann Erhlich (Germany) and Cristina Diaz (USA), a new family of sponges has been established. The new family, Ernstillidae, and the new genus Ernstilla are named for Ernst Hentschel who originally described the species.

It took some excellent sleuthing to discover where this sponge species really belongs. Molecular results placed it far away from other Dendrilla species, in fact in a different subclass! Analysis of its skeleton, which was found to contain chitin, confirmed that this sponge belonged in a different subclass and was not Dendrilla. However, some of its characters are unusual, such as the shape of its filtering chambers and the branching nature of its skeleton, so much so that it did not fit into any family or genus currently known, hence the new names.

New species of sponges are described after exhaustive research to be absolutely certain they are new, and many more sponges await new species descriptions, but it is far less common to find a new family or genus. Only the team work of international experts could have resolved this enigma.

To give context to the change of taxonomic position of this sponge from one subclass to another, the shift is comparable to humans (Homo sapiens) being taken out of the subclass Placentalia where all Primates belong, and being placed in Marsupialia with the kangaroos!

 

The WAMSI Dredging Science Node is made possible through $9.5 million invested by Woodside, Chevron and BHP as environmental offsets. A further $9.5 million has been co-invested by the WAMSI Joint Venture partners, adding significantly more value to this initial industry investment. The node is also supported through critical data provided by Chevron, Woodside and Rio Tinto Iron Ore.

Category:

Dredging Science

Lesson plans put WAMSI data in schools

/in /by

Lesson plans taking data from real research projects are now online to provide students with the opportunity to develop their data science skills based on crocodile and whale surveys.

An initiative by Western Australian Marine Science Institution Data Manager Luke Edwards working with Kimberley Marine Research Program project leader Kelly Waples, Education Services Australia’s Richard Martin and Australian Data Science Education Institute’s Dr Linda McIver has produced a series of online educational resources on Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

It provides a resource for teachers to assist them to develop data science skills using engaging real-life datasets.  It also helps teachers deliver the new Digital Technologies curriculum and contributes to the Digital Technologies Hub resources.

 

 

“Having data resources available to teachers based on actual research results from the Western Australian marine environment is very rare,” Luke Edwards said.

“Using real data provides students with much more motivation to learn data science skills and solve real life problems.

“We’re also producing some career profiles on our WA scientists to show students the background some of our scientists are from and the pathways they have taken to enter their profession.” 

 

 

The resource was launched during Data Science Week and is available to primary and secondary teachers to use in their classrooms.  

Lesson plans for years 5-6 and 7-8 using datasets on whales and crocodiles are now available to teachers online at Education Australia’s Digital Technologies Hub with lesson plans on dugongs and turtles soon to me made available.

 

 

The education resources have some great ideas for assessment in Digital Technologies. Each topic shows a sequence of learning with a summary, brief description, suggested learning activities, supporting resources and assessment ideas.

Data Science Week aims to bring together a community of data scientists across Australia to network and discuss trending topics and ideas across domains. This year’s events showcased a range of organisations including the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and WA Data Science Innovation Hub with a focus on women in data science.

The online education resources are based on data produced for four of the 23 projects conducted as part of WAMSI’s Kimberley Marine Research Program.

For more information email: info@wamsi.org.au

 

The $30 million Kimberley Marine Research Program is funded through major investment supported by $12 million from the Western Australian government co-invested by the WAMSI partners and supported by the Traditional Owners of the Kimberley.

Category: 

Kimberley Marine Research Program

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3! – One Ten East log

/in /by

One Ten East Logs from the IIOE-2 voyage aboard RV Investigator are being posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage.

 

By Prof Lynnath Beckley

The RV Investigator departed Fremantle yesterday afternoon after loading equipment and supplies for our month-long voyage as part of the second International Indian Ocean Expedition. Everyone is finding their sea legs and adapting to the 24/7, 12 hours on and 12 hours off watch system.

Today, as we traverse the 1000 km towards our first station on 110°E, we stopped to do some equipment testing and personnel training so that everyone could become familiar with the equipment, procedures and safety involved with oceanographic sampling.

We are currently about 120 km west of Cape Leeuwin, one of the world’s “Great Capes”. Remarkably, at Cape Leeuwin there is a plaque commemorating the fact that on 6th December 1801, Captain Mathew Flinders, Commander of HMAS Investigator, sighted Cape Leeuwin and started mapping the Australian coast. Now, on the modern 93m RV Investigator, we are on our way to map the south-east Indian Ocean repeating an oceanographic voyage conducted way back in May and June 1963 by the HMAS Diamantina as part of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition.

 

The present-day inscription at Cape Leeuwin dedicated to Captain Matthew Flinders, RN whom sighted Cape Leeuwin and commenced mapping of the Australian coast on 6 December 1801. Photo: Prof Lynnath Beckley

 

“Lights, sound, camera, action” could well have been the call today as we started our testing. Prof David Antoine’s optics team from Curtin University got their many instruments designed to examine light in the ocean up and running. Likewise, using sonobuoys, Curt and Micheline Jenner are already busy monitoring sound from whales as part of their ongoing work for the Australian Department of Defence. Micheline is also our resident photographer and has been busy with her brace of cameras documenting the activities of our 40 scientists and technicians.

Charlotte Robinson from Curtin University, part of David Antoine’s optics team holds a critical piece of their equipment. Photo: Micheline Jenner.

 

We also tested the CTD rosette which is a critical piece of equipment for all the researchers as we document the physical, chemical and biological properties of the water column. When it is brought back on board, it has over 400 L of water sampled from a range of depths in the ocean from which we can examine nutrients, microbes, genetics, pigments and get water to run a range of experiments such as primary production, nitrogen uptake and grazing by micro-zooplankton.

The zooplankton team were also busy testing their extensive arsenal of nets of various configurations and mesh sizes so that they can examine the poorly understood pelagic south-east Indian Ocean food web from tiny phytoplankton through to deep sea lantern fishes.

Curt Jenner deploying the first sonobuoy of the IN2019_V03 voyage to monitor the evening fish chorus. Photo: Micheline Jenner.
Micheline Jenner is ready, willing and able to capture the activities of the 40-member scientific team as well as any whales, dolphins and seabirds that stray within the ship’s field of view. Photo: Curt Jenner.

 

This research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.

Be sure to follow the daily posts of our One Ten East Logs from the IN2019_V03 aboard RV Investigator at https://iioe-2.incois.gov.in and www.wamsi.org.au .

In the Wake of HMAS Diamantina – One Ten East log

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We are about to go through immigration and throw off our lines at 3pm. Great sunny day here in Freo. Hope the weather holds! This is the second log from the voyage. Daily logs will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage

By Lynnath Beckley

On 14th May 2019, the Research Vessel Investigator will depart Fremantle on an oceanographic voyage to the 110°E meridian in the south-east Indian Ocean. This voyage will be following in the wake of the HMAS Diamantina, which in the 1960s, took Australian scientists to study the physical, chemical and biological oceanography of the same region as part of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition. During the 2019 voyage, which is Australia’s major contribution to the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2), a multi-national team of scientists will repeat many of the measurements made nearly six decades ago to ascertain if there have been significant changes in the pelagic ecosystem near the western extent of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

 

The frigate HMAS Diamantina was the primary vessel used by Australian scientists during the first International Indian Ocean Expedition. Photo courtesy of the Queensland Maritime Museum.

 

The HMAS Diamantina is the last remaining example of the British River Class frigates. Built in Australia and launched in 1944, the ship saw service in the latter part of World War 2 around Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Nauru before being paid off into the Reserve in August 1946. It was recommissioned in June 1959 as an Oceanographic Research Ship under the command of Lieutenant Commander Bruce D Gordon RAN. The ship carried scientists from the CSIRO but also assisted the Australian Army survey team along the north-west Australia.

Although there is now a new HMAS Diamantina 2 (a Huon Class Minehunter) in the Australian fleet, the legacy of the original vessel lives on as a popular exhibit in the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane. Furthermore, her name is immortalised in hydrography with one of the deepest areas in the Indian Ocean, the Diamantina Deep (around 8,000 m depth) in the Diamantina Fracture Zone some 1,100 km south-west of Fremantle named after the ship. On the RV Investigator voyage the connection with the Navy has been maintained with Captain Curt Jenner AM and Captain Micheline Jenner AM conducting research on underwater sound and whales for the Australian Defence Force. This voyage is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.

The original HMAS Diamantina, at her berth at the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane. Photo courtesy of the Queensland Maritime Museum.

 

Eeva Leinonen, Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University (right), doing the honours and raising the second International Indian Ocean Expedition flag aboard RV Investigator in the Port of Fremantle. Captain Adrian Koolhof and Prof. Lynnath Beckley observed the proceedings. Photo: Micheline Jenner.

Be sure to follow the daily posts of our One Ten East Logs at IIOE 2 and WAMSI

In the Wake of HMAS Diamantina – One Ten East log

/in /by

We are about to go through immigration and throw off our lines at 3pm. Great sunny day here in Freo. Hope the weather holds! This is the second log from the voyage. Daily logs will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage

By Lynnath Beckley

On 14th May 2019, the Research Vessel Investigator will depart Fremantle on an oceanographic voyage to the 110°E meridian in the south-east Indian Ocean. This voyage will be following in the wake of the HMAS Diamantina, which in the 1960s, took Australian scientists to study the physical, chemical and biological oceanography of the same region as part of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition. During the 2019 voyage, which is Australia’s major contribution to the second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2), a multi-national team of scientists will repeat many of the measurements made nearly six decades ago to ascertain if there have been significant changes in the pelagic ecosystem near the western extent of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

The frigate HMAS Diamantina was the primary vessel used by Australian scientists during the first International Indian Ocean Expedition. Photo courtesy of the Queensland Maritime Museum.14

The HMAS Diamantina is the last remaining example of the British River Class frigates. Built in Australia and launched in 1944, the ship saw service in the latter part of World War 2 around Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Nauru before being paid off into the Reserve in August 1946. It was recommissioned in June 1959 as an Oceanographic Research Ship under the command of Lieutenant Commander Bruce D Gordon RAN. The ship carried scientists from the CSIRO but also assisted the Australian Army survey team along the north-west Australia.

Although there is now a new HMAS Diamantina 2 (a Huon Class Minehunter) in the Australian fleet, the legacy of the original vessel lives on as a popular exhibit in the Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane. Furthermore, her name is immortalised in hydrography with one of the deepest areas in the Indian Ocean, the Diamantina Deep (around 8,000 m depth) in the Diamantina Fracture Zone some 1,100 km south-west of Fremantle named after the ship. On the RV Investigator voyage the connection with the Navy has been maintained with Captain Curt Jenner AM and Captain Micheline Jenner AM conducting research on underwater sound and whales for the Australian Defence Force. This voyage is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.

Be sure to follow the daily posts of our One Ten East Logs at IIOE 2 and WAMSI

Flying the Flag for the International Indian Ocean Expedition – One Ten East log

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Today is loading day in the port of Fremantle and this is the first log from the voyage. Daily logs will be posted on the WAMSI website during the month long voyage.
 
By Lynnath Beckley 
 
The second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) is motivated by the need to advance knowledge about geological, oceanic and atmospheric processes and their interactions in the Indian Ocean because they influence millions of people around its rim. The Expedition aims to quantify how these dynamics affect climate, marine biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems and fisheries, both within the region, and globally.
 
At the annual IIOE-2 Steering Committee meeting in March 2019 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Prof. Lynnath Beckley, Chief Scientist of the upcoming RV Investigator voyage (IN2019_V03) was presented with the IIOE-2 flag.
 
Representing the co-sponsors, Dr Satheesh Shenoi from the Indian Ocean regional alliance of the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS) and Dr Peter Burkill of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) made the presentation and the flag will be proudly flown during the voyage. 
 
 
Above: Prof. Lynnath Beckley being presented with the IIOE-2 Flag by Dr Satheesh Shenoi and Dr Peter Burkill. Photo: Prof Raleigh Hood.

 

 
The voyage which leaves from Fremantle on 14th May will be repeating the 110°E meridian line in the south-east Indian Ocean that was last examined in 1963 by Australian scientists aboard the HMAS Diamantina during the first IIOE. The IN2019_V03 voyage addresses several of the research themes in the IIOE-2 Science Plan, particularly those pertaining to human impacts on the Indian Ocean, boundary current dynamics, ocean circulation, climate variability and change and the unique physical, biogeochemical and ecological features of the Indian Ocean.
 
This research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
 
More information available at https://iioe-2.incois.gov.in/