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 […]
Scientific experts from around Australia will work together on a major new UN-endorsed research project that aims to better forecast and respond to extreme marine heatwaves, as warnings mount that the devastating events will become more frequent and severe. Lead scientist Professor Nicole Jones, from The University of Western Australia, said the project would uncover […]
On International Women’s Day, March 8, WAMSI Science Coordinator Dr Kelly Waples reflects on her career As a young girl in beachside California, Kelly Waples dreamt of being a dolphin trainer from the first time she visited a marine aquarium. Her interest soon shifted from spectacle to science but a passion for the marine mammals […]
A Western Australian Marine Science Institution project led by a scientist from The University of Western Australia is inviting people to help penguin research while getting fit. Dr Belinda Cannell, from UWA’s Oceans Institute, said the project at Cockburn Sound was seeking volunteers who regularly walk at the beach to record any Little Penguins they […]
An art exhibition that fuses scientific knowledge with creative inspiration is set to open later this month in Albany. Immerse will feature artworks by 20 MIX Artists from the Great Southern that showcase a unique art-science collaboration between contemporary artists and marine scientists working in the region. The waters of the south coast and around […]
A new blueprint for Western Australian marine research
A new report to guide Western Australia’s coastal research priorities and initiatives signals a renewed focus for statewide marine science. The Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) today launched the Blueprint Refresh 2022-2027, identifying opportunities for marine science to improve the sustainable use and management of WA’s coastal and estuarine marine environments. Developed with advice […]