Monday, October 12, 2009
Western Australia to Protect Whales with Marine Park
The state government of Western Australia is creating a marine park to protect and manage a key nursery of the world's largest humpback whale population. The marine park is to be at Camden Sound, about 400km north of Broome, protecting its pristine marine environment for generations to come.
Allowing for consultation, including a public comment period of three months, a marine park could be established by mid-2010.
Environment Minister Donna Faragher said Camden Sound was the biggest calving area for humpback whales in the southern hemisphere.
"More than 1,000 humpback whales can be found in the Camden Sound ‘maternity ward' during the calving season," she said.
Mrs Faragher added "They are part of the biggest population of humpback whales in the world - numbering about 22,000 - that migrate from Antarctica every year to give birth in the waters off the north of our State.
"Camden Sound is also rich in other marine life, from coral reefs and mangrove forests to turtles and dugongs.
Humpbacks have been protected from whaling in the southern hemisphere since 1963, when numbers in Western Australia fell to fewer than a thousand. Their numbers are recovering at a remarkable 10 per cent each year.
Found in oceans around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. They feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to warmer waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves.
Further Reading:
Scientists discover massive humpback whale nursery off WA coast
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Labels: Australia, SCUBA News, whale and dolphins
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Ocean-Going Robotic Submarine Returns
Scientists are celebrating the first successful deployment and retrieval in Australia of a remotely controlled, deep ocean-going robotic submarine destined to play a central role in measuring changes in two of Australia’s most influential ocean currents.
Under the joint CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship and Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS) project, the underwater ocean glider was launched in February on a two-month, 1,500 kilometre voyage.
With its porpoising motion and an ability to descend to a depth of nearly 1,000 metres, the $A200,000 robotic glider is being trialled in the Tasman Sea and the Indian Ocean as the latest tool in Australia’s $A94 million marine observing network.
The glider’s sensors measure temperature and salinity, as well a range of biological parameters including oxygen and turbidity.
Senior CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship researcher Ken Ridgway, says the Tasman Sea trial has generated new confidence among scientists broadening the array of instruments available to them to better understand the East Australian Current and Leeuwin Currents.
“Ocean currents around Australia are critical to so many aspects of nature and human activity,” Mr Ridgway says. “With the East Australian and Leeuwin Currents, we need to understand how they change from season to season and year to year, and the extent of their influence on local coastal conditions, as this affects climate, weather, fisheries, shipping and more.
Together with data from research vessels, satellites and moored, drifting and expendable instruments, the glider will add a new dimension to profiling the oceans around Australia. But there are still challenges to be overcome.
“In a lot of ways this first deployment is as much learning how to pilot the glider and guide it through and around the eddies of the East Australian Current as it is getting about the data we want,” Mr Ridgway says.
A recent innovation in oceanography, the winged gliders are programmable and guided by Global Positioning Systems. They glide during depth changes, driven by an inflated oil filled chamber. However, because the ocean currents can be faster than the glider’s speed, ensuring they are not swept away has been a difficult process.
“The appeal of these instruments is that they are out working while the scientist can be assessing what is near-real time information about ocean conditions,” Mr Ridgway says.
Stories like this:
Robotic sea glider flies through water
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Under the joint CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship and Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS) project, the underwater ocean glider was launched in February on a two-month, 1,500 kilometre voyage.
With its porpoising motion and an ability to descend to a depth of nearly 1,000 metres, the $A200,000 robotic glider is being trialled in the Tasman Sea and the Indian Ocean as the latest tool in Australia’s $A94 million marine observing network.
The glider’s sensors measure temperature and salinity, as well a range of biological parameters including oxygen and turbidity.
Senior CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship researcher Ken Ridgway, says the Tasman Sea trial has generated new confidence among scientists broadening the array of instruments available to them to better understand the East Australian Current and Leeuwin Currents.
“Ocean currents around Australia are critical to so many aspects of nature and human activity,” Mr Ridgway says. “With the East Australian and Leeuwin Currents, we need to understand how they change from season to season and year to year, and the extent of their influence on local coastal conditions, as this affects climate, weather, fisheries, shipping and more.
Together with data from research vessels, satellites and moored, drifting and expendable instruments, the glider will add a new dimension to profiling the oceans around Australia. But there are still challenges to be overcome.
“In a lot of ways this first deployment is as much learning how to pilot the glider and guide it through and around the eddies of the East Australian Current as it is getting about the data we want,” Mr Ridgway says.
A recent innovation in oceanography, the winged gliders are programmable and guided by Global Positioning Systems. They glide during depth changes, driven by an inflated oil filled chamber. However, because the ocean currents can be faster than the glider’s speed, ensuring they are not swept away has been a difficult process.
“The appeal of these instruments is that they are out working while the scientist can be assessing what is near-real time information about ocean conditions,” Mr Ridgway says.
Stories like this:
Robotic sea glider flies through water
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Labels: Australia, research, SCUBA News, technology
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Healthy Coral Reefs Hit Hard by Warmer Temperatures
Coral disease outbreaks have struck the healthiest sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where for the first time researchers have conclusively linked disease severity and ocean temperature. Close living quarters among coral may make it easy for infection to spread, researchers have found."With this study, speculation about the impacts of global warming on the spread of infectious diseases among susceptible marine species has been brought to an end," said Don Rice, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research through the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Diseases Program.
For 6 years, the international research team, led by University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, tracked an infection called white syndrome in 48 reefs along more than 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Australia's coastline.
The colorful coral colonies that attract visitors to the Great Barrier Reef live atop a limestone scaffolding built from the calcium carbonate secretions of each tiny coral, or polyp. While polyps provide the framework, coral's vivid hues come from symbiotic single-celled algae that live in the polyps. The algae supply much of the food coral need to survive.
When disease or stressful environmental conditions strike a coral colony, the polyps expel their algae. This algae loss makes the coral appear pale.
"We're left with a big question. Can corals and other marine species successfully adapt or evolve, when faced with such change?" Rice said.
Understanding the causes of disease outbreaks will help ecologists protect reef-building corals, which support commercial marine species and buffer low-lying coastal areas.
"More diseases are infecting more coral species every year, leading to the global loss of reef-building corals and the decline of other important species dependent on reefs," said lead study author John Bruno at UNC. "We've long suspected climate change is driving disease outbreaks. Our results suggest that warmer temperatures are increasing the severity of disease in the ocean."
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Labels: Australia, coral, coral reef, environment, marine biology
