New master plan for Swan and Canning rivers

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Perth’s much-loved Swan and Canning rivers will remain vibrant and accessible for all West Australians under a new State Government strategy released today (Tuesday 20 October).

Environment Minister Albert Jacob said the Swan Canning River Protection Strategy provided a master plan to guide investment, keep the rivers healthy and ensure they were accessible for the community to enjoy in the long term.

“For the first time, we have a whole-of-Government strategy that sets out a shared vision on what needs to be done to make sure our rivers are better protected while meeting the demands of a growing city,” Mr Jacob said.

“This strategy will better co-ordinate work between the government agencies involved in managing the rivers with the aim of improving benefits to the community and ensuring the rivers continue to be attractive and desirable places.

“This improved integration between agencies will lead to more efficient use of the State Government’s substantial investment in the management of our rivers with better outcomes for river health and community use and enjoyment.”

Read more…

 

 

Category: 

Estuary Science

Premier briefed on Kimberley marine research projects

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WA Premier and Science Minister Colin Barnett released two AFL celebrity into waters off Broome as part of a broader program of marine research in the Kimberley.

The two green sea turtles Cyril and Sharrod, named after the AFL Hawkes forward Cyril Rioli and Eagles defender Sharrod Wellingham by the Yawuru Rangers, were caught in the waters off Roebuck Bay and tagged with a satellite tracking device. Premier Barnett released the turtles as part of the Yawuru Rangers marine turtle monitoring collaboration. The results will be updated daily on seaturtle.org.

Premier Barnett was also briefed on the Kimberley Marine Research Program by WAMSI program leader Stuart Field (DPaW); a $30million project under WA’s Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy with 10 partner agencies and more than 100 scientists delivering 26 projects.

Researcher Scott Whiting prepares a turtle for release (Photo: Stuart Field, DPaW)
Tagged and ready for release
(Photo: Stuart Field, DPaW)

 

Premier Colin Barnett releasing Cyril the green sea turtle (@CollinBarnett: Twitter)
Monitor Cyril’s and Sharrod’s progress on seaturtle.org.

The Premier and Yawuru Rangers watch the sea turtles’ progress (DPaW)

 

WAMSI-DPaW Stuart Field briefs Premier Colin Barnett on WAMSI marine research in the Kimberley (DPaW)

FACT FILE:

DPaW Yawuru Rangers sea turtle monitoring:

  • Three species of marine turtle are common residents in Roebuck Bay (Green, hawksbill and flatback turtle), with other species (loggerhead, leatherback) less common.
  • Green turtles are abundant in Roebuck Bay and are ecologically and culturally significant.
  • Green turtles are a primary consumer of seagrass and algae and play a major role in the health of these systems.
  • Green turtles are highly significant in Yawuru culture and are important for food, ceremony, stories and songs.

Results from this study will provide information on:

  • Spatial (where) and temporal use (when) of habitats;
  • What habitats are important and how they use them;
  • How they use the proposed Roebuck Bay Marine Park and areas outside the park;
  • Identify any other spatial areas that are important (for example – are they frequently visiting areas 100 km away):
  • Identify areas where turtles and human pressures overlap (eg shipping lanes);
  • The results will be updated daily on seaturtle.org.
Category:

Kimberley Marine Research Program

Ancient building rite marks milestone for new collaborative research centre

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Published in AIMS Waypoint Spring 2015 Newsletter

 

An ancient ‘topping off’ ceremony was used in July to celebrate the successful installation of the final concrete beam in the new Indian Ocean Marine Centre in Perth.

The new marine centre is on the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Crawley campus, and marks an exciting time for new collaborative partnerships in marine science. The ceremony was held with AIMS, CSIRO, UWA and Western Australian Department of Fisheries researchers and staff.

Dr John Chappell, AIMS’ Operations and Infrastructure Manager, said, “It’s exciting to reach this significant milestone in constructing the new state-of-the-art facility that will bring together the Indian Ocean’s leading marine research organisations.”

Northwest Australian marine waters will never be the same: researchers will focus on discovering, understanding and monitoring those tropical waters, and in doing so, supporting the protection and sustainability of our ocean heritage.

More than fifty guests watched UWA Chief Operating Officer, Gaye McMath, lead the topping out of the $60.6 million building.

Grateful for the success of the project to date, Ms McMath expressed excitement about expanded research opportunities because of the collaboration of partners the centre would enable. “It will continue to build Australia’s international marine research status.”

Symbolising growth and bringing luck, a bouquet of plants from the UWA campus was also hung from the top of the building.

It’s expected the building will be finished in mid-2016, and will then house more than 330 multi-disciplinary researchers specialising in fisheries, marine technology, marine ecology, geochemistry, governance and engineering.

The Indian Ocean Centre was enabled by contributions from the collaborating organisations and a $34 million grant from the Australian Government, highlighting the wide commitment to premiere tropical marine research.

Also celebrating were people from site contractor BGC Construction. Their work has brought together essential services within the six-storey building with sustainable design principles.

Signals from the sawfish nursery

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By Jeff Whitty and Dr David Morgan

Murdoch University’s Freshwater Fish Group (Centre for Fish & Fisheries Research) in conjunction with the Nyikina-Mangala Rangers, are unravelling the mysteries of one of the most threatened fishes in the world, the freshwater sawfish (Pristis pristis).

A WAMSI project funded by Chevron Australia, ‘Team Sawfish’ is helping to protect one of the world’s largest fishes that is found in freshwater. The freshwater sawfish has declined globally, and in Australia is listed as Vulnerable on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Facing multiple threats including fishing pressure, often by means of bycatch and habitat modification, the numbers and ranges of all sawfishes have greatly declined. In Western Australia, the freshwater sawfish inhabits rivers as juveniles and as such it is likely to be impacted by habitat modifications such as instream barriers (e.g. dams), which may obstruct their migrations into freshwater nurseries. Murdoch University researchers are investigating what impacts these barriers may have on the freshwater sawfish.

In August 2015, Team Sawfish, consisting of Murdoch University researchers and the local Nyikina-Mangala Rangers, set out to continue their work studying the impacts of such barriers in the Fitzroy River, Western Australia.
Team Sawfish measuring a freshwater sawfish

Starting at 360rkm (i.e. 360 kilometres upstream of the river mouth), Team Sawfish systematically sampled pools for sawfish as they moved downstream, including those pools located in close proximity to  the various barriers on the river and ending within the estuarine pools near the river mouth.

The aim of this trip was to catch and tag freshwater sawfish with acoustic transmitters in order to monitor and thus better understand how anthropogenic barriers may affect the movements and/or behaviour of these fishes during the wet and dry seasons, noting movement over the barriers is only possible during peak flows during the wet season (December-April).
Nyikina-Mangala Rangers preparing to deploy an acoustic receiver to monitor the movements of tagged sawfish

During their sampling efforts, Team Sawfish found pools along the river to have become filled in and shallow, a likely result of the lack of flushing of introduced sediments during the past few small wet seasons.

The small 2014-2015 wet season also seemed to have led to the capture/presence of very few sawfish and no young of the year (those pupped within the 2014-2015 wet season).

This finding was congruent with findings from previous years, which suggested that the relative abundance of sawfish within the freshwater pools of the river is positively correlated with the size of the previous wet season.  

The Freshwater Sawfish that were captured were limited to size classes that would have been pupped in 2011-2012. Observing sawfish from the 2011 year class to still be present within the river provided further evidence that some juvenile sawfish do inhabit the river for more than four years, as previous data suggested.

The monitoring of sawfish continues and the team is continuing to tag and record freshwater sawfish in spring of this year.

If you catch a tagged sawfish, or would like to know more about these mysterious creatures, please contact fish@murdoch.edu.au.

 

Category: 

Sawfish Project

IGEM collaboration important first step in voluntary industry data sharing

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The success of a pilot project that generated a snapshot of environmental data relevant to impact assessment and monitoring off the northwest coast is on track to begin sharing industry meta-data from the many industry funded studies in Western Australia.

Several conscientious oil and gas companies have taken the initiative by agreeing to share information about the huge number of datasets they collect.

Woodside, Chevron, Inpex, Murphy Oil Australia, PTTEP, Quadrant Energy (formally Apache), Santos, Shell Australia, facilitated by their peak industry body APPEA, are creating a meta-database called the Industry-Government Environmental Meta-database (IGEM), which is being developed and operated by the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI).   

Metadata is information about data. It tells you where, how, when and what data was collected.  As well as these companies, WAMSI, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the state government Departments of Parks and Wildlife, and Fisheries are also contributing their own metadata to the IGEM.

“As an industry, we collect a huge amount of data,” Chair of the APPEA Environment and Safety Committee Gerry Flaherty said. “But right now only the companies who pay for the projects know what has been collected.  If we have an emergency we need to respond to quickly. Having a place where everyone can see what information is out there will dramatically improve our response.”

“This will be a great advantage for IGEM partners in projects to inform regulatory processes or for research purposes, not just response,” WAMSI CEO Patrick Seares said. “It means they can look at the IGEM to see what already exists, then negotiate access to it with the owners rather than doing expensive duplicate fieldwork.”

IGEM will have the capacity to increase its key datasets but it will begin with using metadata collected post-2008 in seven key areas: mangroves; benthic habitats; demersal fish, nesting turtles, seabirds and shorebirds, megafauna; and sediment quality.

Subscribers will be able to search for relevant environmental studies by research activity in a specific area; the date it was collected; the organisation that collected the data; type of data; and key words.

The in-development web-based platform should initially provide access to geospatial metadata records on key studies off Western Australia, but with the potential to expand nationally. The site will have a page accessible to the general public with limited information and a log-in interface for approved members who can generate reports.

“I hope as we can start seeing the system evolve that other companies, agencies and research groups see the positives in this process and follow the lead of the current participants,” Patrick Seares said. “Sharing metadata has so many upsides and really doesn’t expose the data owners to any risk.”

The IGEM platform is expected to be available by early 2016.

Field report from research vessels in Camden Sound, Kimberley region

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The initial ship-based expedition to Camden Sound was conducted under the auspices of WAMSI’s Kimberley Benthic Biodiversity Project, which aims to provide a better knowledge base about what occurs where in the Kimberley’s diverse marine environments, especially in areas of management priority such as the state government’s proposed marine parks and reserves.

Cruise leader on board the RV Solander, Dr Andrew Heyward from AIMS in Perth, said that the vessel operated 24/7 during its 18-day itinerary. “Scientists and staff worked in shifts, doing towed video and sediment sampling during daylight, and multibeam sonar surveys during the night,” he said.

Although the weather was generally very good, extreme tides, strong currents, turbid waters and some uncharted areas provided plenty of challenges for researchers. They successfully completed more than 200 km of towed video and thousands of km of multibeam seafloor mapping, in the first of two expeditions to the Camden Sound area.

“We’ve seen large areas of dynamic sand across the open Sound, including some patches with underwater sand dunes,” commented Andrew, “but also rocky ground covered in a large variety of marine invertebrates, in particular sponges and soft corals.”

The turbid waters of Camden Sound prevent sunlight from penetrating more than ~10 m in depth, so organisms that need light – such as corals and seaweeds – appear to be restricted to the shallowest parts of rocky ground and the upper edges of fringing reefs around islands. As depth increases and light fades the filter feeding sponges, soft corals, ascidians and bryozoans become the dominant components of the seabed communities.

“Thanks to the combined efforts of the Solander and the Linnaeus this month,” said Andrew, “we’re beginning to understand a lot more about what the seafloor of the Lalang-garram-Camden Sound Marine Reserve looks like, and the benthic biodiversity that lives there.”

Dr Iain Parnum from Curtin University is busily compiling all the gathered multibeam sonar data now. “In terms of outputs, first of all, we’ll deliver some much-needed improved bathymetry information for Camden Sound,” he explained. “Secondly, sonar backscatter data – both from the seafloor and the water column – will give us good insights into the kinds of underwater terrain and ecosystems at each sampled location.”

In addition, Dr John Keesing from CSIRO took advantage of the presence of the RV Solander in the Kimberley to advance another WAMSI project investigating historic changes in water quality. He collected sediment cores (each ~1.5 m long) at ~20 m depth from two locations in Roebuck Bay. “These cores will be used to reconstruct a time series of water quality in the Bay, which is expected to go back about 100 years,” he said.

As with all WAMSI projects, the data and outputs will be freely available to everyone with an interest in the marine environments of the Kimberley.

Map showing sites in Camden Sound where towed video surveys were conducted in November 2014 

 

A still image from one of the towed video surveys showing mixed filter-feeding community (including bryozoans, sponges and soft corals) growing on a rock outcrop (Photo courtesy of AIMS)

Category:

Kimberley Marine Research Program

Vale Professor Lindsay Collins

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We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Lindsay Collins.

Lindsay has been involved with WAMSI since its inception in 2006. A leading geomorphologist with the Applied Sedimentology and Marine Geoscience Group, Department of Geology at Curtin University, he was a valued friend and project leader on both the Ningaloo Research Program in collaboration with CSIRO and the WA Museum, WAMSI’s Caring for our Country Project – Shark Bay and the current Kimberley Marine Research Program.

Lindsay was one of life’s true gentlemen and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his dedication and lasting contribution to marine science.

He shared his passion for geomorphology supervising some 50 Honours, Masters and PhD geoscience students over his more than 40 years of research and teaching during which time he earned the respect of his colleagues as a highly cited scientist and an expert in his field.

Lindsay Collins could always be relied on to produce high quality, successful and valuable collaborative projects. Just this year we were fortunate to have him present his latest project for us on Kimberley Reef Growth and Maintenance at the WAMSI Conference in March.

Lindsay’s wise guidance about science, but also people, has always been highly valued by WAMSI. His engaging personality and honest opinion were a great asset to the marine science community as a whole.

On behalf of all of us at the Western Australian Marine Science Institution and its partners I offer our sincere condolences to his family, and his many colleagues.

Patrick Seares
WAMSI CEO
 

The funeral for Professor Lindsay Collins will take place next Friday, 11th September at 2.30 at Karrakatta Cemetery, followed by a wake at Cottesloe Beach Hotel at 4.30pm.

Lindsay Collins and Premier Colin Barnett at the 2015 WAMSI Conference

 

Kimberley crocodile numbers triple in biggest survey in three decades

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Early results from WAMSI’s crocodile survey in Western Australia’s north suggest their numbers have tripled over the last 30 years.

(More…)

(Video: Croc Watch: ABC Landline)

Category:

Kimberley Marine Research Program

Re-defining sediment transport models over coral reefs and seagrass meadows

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Novel research within WAMSI’s Dredging Science Node will redefine how current dredged sediment transport models predict key pressure parameters such as sediment deposition rates within ecologically significant marine habitats.

Sediment deposition and subsequent smothering of marine habitats such as corals and seagrasses is one of the mechanisms by which dredging can impact on the environment.

However, according to Professor Ryan Lowe from The University of Western Australia, current sediment transport models are severely lacking in their ability to predict rates of sediment deposition and re-suspension over coral reefs and seagrass meadows with any degree of confidence.

Canopies formed by seagrass meadows impose drag forces that can trap sediment. This is not accounted for in sediment transport models.

“The first step in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for proponents of new developments is to make predictions on the likely extent, severity and duration of their impacts on the environment,” Professor Lowe said. “To do this for projects involving dredging, proponents use sediment transport models that make predictions of where dredge plumes will go and what impacts they will have when they get there.”

“Current sediment transport models assume that the seafloor is essentially flat and that nothing is growing on it. However, in reality the large roughness, or canopies, formed by coral reefs, seagrass meadows and sponge gardens impose substantial drag forces that will alter turbulent flow structure over very small spatial scales and can trap sediment. As a consequence, current sediment transport models can grossly underestimate the rates of sediment deposition that occur in and around these important habitats.”

Sawhorse instrument frame deployed at Ningaloo Reef with hydrodynamic and sediment transport instrumentation. Photo: Andrew Pomeroy

Professor Lowe and UWA collaborator Dr. Marco Ghisalberti are leading a research program combining field and laboratory techniques to address this problem.

“In the field we are measuring turbulent flow structure and sediment concentrations above and within the coral reef and seagrass meadow canopies,” Professor Lowe said. “These direct measurements are compared with various conventional sediment transport models and highlight the major deficiencies.

“We are also conducting parallel and complementary laboratory experiments. The advantage of laboratory experiments is that we can examine in detail the mechanisms and processes in a controlled setting. We can control the densities and heights of canopies, and factors like whether they are completely submerged or not. In this way we can precisely measure transport rates, near bed turbulence, sheer stress and look at the effect of canopies on transport rates and subsequent deposition,” he explained.

Laboratory experiments of sediment transport through artificial canopies

The ultimate goal of this research is to develop new and improved transport formulations and algorithms that can more accurately predict rates of sediment deposition and the subsequent impacts to seabed communities.

“If we can achieve this, then both the Environmental Protection Authority and project proponents will have greater levels of confidence in the prediction of impacts during the EIA process,” Professor Lowe said. “And this is what the Dredging Science Node is all about.”

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

School’s out on tropical fish nurseries in the Kimberley

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It’s an amazing journey for most tropical fish starting out life as larvae floating in the open ocean to making it back to the coast to settle down and live out the rest of their days.

During this process many species undergo rapid and often radical changes in their appearance changing from transparent larvae to the beautiful diversity of shapes and colours we are most familiar with.

Understanding when, where and how many tropical fish settle into different Kimberley habitats will provide an important management tool to help protect essential nursery areas and ensure there are plenty of reproductive adults to resupply following generations.

Alongside the Bardi-Jawi Marine Rangers and Traditional Owners, a WAMSI team from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), CSIRO, Western Australian Museum and Departments of Fisheries and Parks and Wildlife, began surveys of fish recruitment in April.

Diversity of larval fish (and other) forms captured from the open ocean. Image from Robert Cowen Laboratory, University of Miami, USA.

“The first stage was to develop the right technique to do this accurately in the challenging Kimberley environment,” AIMS researcher Martial Depczynski explained.

“We assessed nine different methods among seagrass, coral reef, inter-tidal and mangrove habitats typical of the Kimberley region.

“We found in most cases that different nursery habitats were best quantified using different methods but that one single method was sufficiently efficient, easy, cost-effective and safe to use in all four habitats,” Dr Depczynski said.

Lifecycle of a juvenile reef fish. Fish begin their lives in the open ocean as semi-transparent larvae before recruiting and settling into their juvenile and adult coastal habitat often for the rest of their lives. During recruitment, they undergo metamorphosis losing their larval features to take on their characteristic shape and colouration. Image from Reefkeeping South Africa.

The investigators found that remote underwater video, although new to the task of recording small juvenile fishes, was able to provide robust relative estimates of abundance and diversity in fish nursery habitats and was the best option among the nine methods.

“Now that the correct methodology has been developed, our next trip in October, which will run in conjunction with a team investigating the same recruitment process in corals, will concentrate on getting a solid data set together to answer questions such as; what nursery habitats are important to what fish species, are there hotspots of fish recruitment activity and what is the strength of fish recruitment in dry versus wet seasons,” Dr Depczynski said.

“We will continue to work in with the Bardi-Jawi Marine Rangers and the Traditional Owners on the Cape Leveque – Sunday Island – Cygnet Bay area to better understand the processes that govern fish recruitment processes in this area.

“The main aim and best possible outcome from this WAMSI project is to have definitive quantitative data on fish and coral nursery areas which identify nursery hotspots and can feed into both State and Indigenous management plans such as the next Bardi-Jawi Indigenous Area Management Plan.

Remote underwater video unit deployed to record newly recruited fishes in an intertidal rock pool during low spring tides on Sunday Island.

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

 

Category:

Kimberley Marine Research Program