One part of my PhD research was working with NSW DPI and UOW to assess the performance of marine protected areas (MPAs). We recently had an article published in Biological Conservation where we used seafloor mapping to improve the assessment of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (free download here till July 20th). Here’s a quick rundown on what we found…
by Candice Visser and Quentin Hanich, University of Wollongong
Shopping can be confusing at the best of times, and trying to find environmentally friendly options makes it even more difficult. Welcome to our Sustainable Shopping series, in which we ask experts to provide easy eco-friendly guides to purchases big and small. Continue reading
Pregnant Sharks and Rays Abort Offspring When Fished – Guest post by Kye Adams
Have you ever seen a viral video of a shark or ray giving birth (e.g. River Monsters)? Unfortunately, it turns out these videos have a pretty dark explanation: There’s a fairly high chance the female is actually aborting her pups due to the stress of being caught. Continue reading
A prediction of the preferred environmental habitat for the range-shifting yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) for March 2008, based on a combination of preferences for sea surface temperature, current speed and sea surface height.
Curtis Champion is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies – University of Tasmania. He stopped by the Fish Thinkers blog to give us a run down on some of the research he is working on.
Climate. Change. No doubt you’ve heard of the phenomenon. And while a small number of our political reps sporadically break into the headlines for criticising its reality, the global scientific community has been busy forging novel territory to understand its ecological consequences. This emergent field is most-commonly referred to as “species redistribution science” because plants and animals shifting where they live (generally towards the poles or up mountains) in response to changes in temperature is perhaps the most perceptible ecological effect of climate change. Continue reading
Daniel Swadling is a new PhD student at the University of Wollongong who is embarking on a project to better understand the relationship between temperate fishes and their habitats. He also loves his luderick and drummer fishing using an old school Alvey reel, so he is going to fit in just fine and I sense there will be plenty of fishing adventures in the future. Below is his guest post recapping his honours project and where he is heading with his PhD research.
My name is Daniel, I am a PhD student at the University of Wollongong (UOW) Continue reading
Are you concerned about the health of New South Wales marine environment?
If you are, it is worth looking at the NSW Marine Estate Threat and Risk Assessment Draft Report and providing a submission or comment to improve the assessment.
The report will be used to determine the most important threats and risks to the NSW marine environment and your submission could help decide where management actions are directed. Note: submissions are due this Saturday the 30th of April.
The website contains the current threat and risk assessment for a range of human activities on environmental assets (for e.g. fish, beaches, rocky reef etc.). It is interesting to see what the current risk ratings are for certain human activities and how the NSW Marine Estate justify these ratings.
To search for this information the NSW Marine Estate has developed an interactive tool to help you navigate through the draft assessment. Once you have identified a human activity (for e.g. recreational fishing) and its risk on an environmental asset (for e.g. the fish assemblage) there are links to a variety of reports used to justify this ranking plus a link to provide your own feedback.
The interactive tool did take me some time to get the hang of, so below are instructions and screen grabs to help you navigate your way through the site.
Rubbish on the sea bed. Petr Kratochvil
June Fishbits: Going plastic free for the sea, bridging the divide between different interest groups, and writing our science heaps more betterer!
We as consumers, particularly in western countries, are pretty boring when it comes to our seafood. Given the diversity of fish in our oceans this seems pretty strange. It’s like our taste buds are only fond of a handful of species such as tuna, cod, salmon, flake etc. But our obsession for these fish (majority of which are apex predators), has resulted in many of their stocks becoming overfished and deterioration of the ecosystems in which they live in. So it’s time we started mixing things up in terms of what seafood we catch, order, buy and cook!! This leads me to today’s guest post by Lauren Yates of Ponytail Journal. Lauren runs a super successfully blog covering all things from fashion, food and travel. When it comes to cooking, Lauren is a huge advocate of using sustainable seafood, regularly encouraging her followers to steer clear of the ‘trendy’ species that are overexploited and explore more sustainable options. Read her post below on why salmon can’t be on the menu anymore… Continue reading
One aspect of my PhD is to understand a little bit more about the ecology of pelagic fishes, specifically what habitats they prefer in coastal waters. But before I could do this I first had to determine the best way to sample these fishes and this is what todays post is on. Continue reading
This guest post is by Jordan Matley, a PhD Candidate at James Cook University who has worked on various subjects ranging from the foraging ecology of seals, beluga whales and narwhals in the Arctic to the movement of fish on coral reefs in Tropical Australia. At the recent Australian Society of Fish Biology conference we were talking about all things fishy but his work on coral trout was one of the highlights for me. Hence (when he had his guard down at the bar) I asked him to give us a run down on some of his coral trout behaviour work.
Building Coral Trout Management
By Jordan Matley
A tagged leopard coralgrouper (Plectropomus leopardus) ready for release.
Imagine you were opening a new hotel from scratch. Because you are in a rush (and without any prior experience) you decide to put an ad online – “Tradespeople needed to build hotel. First 100 qualified applicants will be hired on the spot”. True to your word, you hire the first century of people who have a diploma related to Trades and Services. See the problem with that? Well, chances are the workforce will consist of those with the most common experience, likely general labourers. However, to build a hotel, you need a plethora of highly skilled workers: electricians, builders, decorators, plumbers, and the list goes on. But you did not select for that, you just grouped all tradespeople together and the more abundant profession filled the ranks. Foolish? I’d say so. Continue reading
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