Even for a veterinarian who regularly anaesthetises antelopes, giraffes and hippopotamuses, the Australian sea lions off Perth were a new challenge for Werribee Open Range Zoo’s Dr Brett Gardner. The Victorian based wildlife vet, supporting Dr Simone Vitali – a former specialist veterinarian with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions in Perth – helped […]
As a graduate scientist with a passion for marine biology and fisheries, Jenny Shaw was excited to be selected for an expedition to the Abrolhos Islands. That was, until she was bumped from the vessel’s manifest when someone more senior discovered ‘J. Shaw’ was a woman. The knockback didn’t deter her, and in the decades […]
A new strategic partnership will provide leadership in achieving better public good outcomes for Australia’s environment. Originally published by Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) A trusted environment data and information supply chain to improve research and decision making on Australia’s environment is the focus of a new strategic partnership between the Australian Government Department of Climate […]
This art award and exhibition has been postponed until 21-25 October 2024 Creative Western Australians are being invited to transform marine debris and beach finds into art for an exhibition at The University of Western Australia’s Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC). The Western Australian Marine Science Institution is a sponsor of ‘From Waste to […]
Microplastics researchers need to think about everything from the jackets they wear in the field and their sampling containers to laboratory washing up methods to avoid contamination, according to a visiting biology professor who runs a plastics testing laboratory in the United States. Dr Brian Walker, from Fairfield University in Fairfield Connecticut, told a recent […]
A research team has, for the first time, been able to build a comprehensive picture of the distribution and abundance of blue swimmer crabs in Cockburn Sound over the species’ entire life cycle. Dr Danielle Johnston, a senior research scientist from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, is leading the collaborative project as […]
Commercial tour boat photographers take tens of thousands of photos every year of excited snorkellers enjoying close encounters with Ningaloo Reef’s magnificent whale sharks. But their photos, showing the distinctive spots and markings on the big fish, are also being shared in scientific catalogues to be used by researchers around the world. It’s a scientific […]
Researchers and commercial divers have created underwater garden beds in Cockburn Sound, using dredged sediment from a nearby area, as part of a project aimed at improving the survival rates of transplanted seagrass. About 80 percent of the Sound’s seagrass meadows were wiped out by the 1970s because of excessive nutrient discharge and they have […]
Wave, current, sonar and camera equipment has been deployed underwater to allow researchers to track sediment flow in and around Cockburn Sound as part of a project which is expected to improve sand nourishment. Research Fellow Dr Michael Cuttler, from The University of Western Australia’s Oceans Institute, said the research team had set up the […]
As a climate change ecologist and passionate science communicator, Professor Gretta Pecl knows the challenges of talking about dire threats to the oceans and species extinction, without people feel overwhelmed and ‘switching off’. Professor Pecl, the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology at The University of Tasmania, and a researcher at the Institute for […]