Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Seeing ocean life through eDNA: new insights from south-eastern Australia
Sep 2, 2025
The voyages, conducted in July 2023 and May 2024, were part of the South-East Australian Marine Ecosystem Survey (SEA-MES) on the CSIRO Research Vessel (RV) Investigator. More than 500 eDNA samples were collected and analysed from 91 survey sites along the continental shelf between Tasmania and southern New South Wales. This is the first comprehensive…
Black rockcod find refuge in ‘no-take’ zones amid overall population decline
Jun 17, 2025
It’s a go-to zone for scuba divers who descend to 12–18 metre depths and watch grey nurse sharks parade through rocky gutters. For some there’s an even rarer sight . . . the appearance of a large black rockcod. This legendary fellow is estimated to be 50–70 years old. Divers first noticed him in 1988,…
Neville Barrett receives 2025 Australian Marine Sciences Association Silver Jubilee Award
Jun 17, 2025
The videos show the spectrum of seabed life from Breaksea Island at the ocean entrance to Platypus Point where the channel joins Bathurst Harbour: a small inland sea. The channel’s sheltered, dimly lit habitat is globally rare. Many of sponges, corals and bryozoans that thrive here are more typically found deep in the ocean. They…
Workshop bridges knowledge and expertise to support offshore wind farm environmental assessment
Jun 17, 2025
The two-day workshop was part of a hub project that is developing regional modelling and risk assessment to support decision-making in the Gippsland Declared Area off the coast of Victoria. Presenters outlined ecosystem modelling approaches, the status of environmental knowledge and existing activities such as fishing and offshore petroleum for the Bass Strait region. The…
Marine and Coastal Hub offshore wind farm environmental research update, June 2025
Jun 6, 2025
This research update brings together Marine and Coastal Hub projects and outputs relating to offshore wind farm environmental research in Australia. The hub and its research partners have been working in this area since 2023 with a focus on key environmental factors considered relevant to offshore wind farm construction, operation and decommissioning in Australian waters….
Gathering knowledge to assess windfarm development off Gippsland
Mar 26, 2025
Environmental information is needed for effective planning and assessments. The Marine and Coastal Hub is collating and reviewing existing environmental information for Australian offshore wind declaration areas. Hub researchers are identifying datasets on ecosystems, habitats, oceanography and priority species at a regional scale for declared areas. They are recommending ways to make the information more…
Smoothing the flow of marine and coastal restoration
Dec 12, 2024
These are findings of a Marine and Coastal Hub project that reviewed people’s experiences and made suggestions for improving the viability of marine and coastal restoration efforts in Australia. In 2022, Australia joined other parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The framework agenda is to halt and…
A new method to identify sites for coastal wetland restoration
Oct 3, 2024
Restoration efforts face challenges due to the limited data available on potential project locations and their blue carbon value (carbon-capture in vegetation and soils). The need for feasibility studies to secure carbon market funding can hinder progress. A paper published in the Journal of Environmental Management in October introduces a regional-scale approach to identifying coastal…
Updated population trend estimates enable threatened species listings for migratory shorebirds
Mar 25, 2024
The new listings were guided by population trend estimates created in a Marine and Coastal Hub project co-designed with the Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). The hub project, led by Professor Richard Fuller of The University of Queensland, focussed on 15 migratory shorebird species whose conservation status was being reassessed…
Pakana Rangers pilot surveys of seagrass habitat in the proposed Tayaritja Milaythina Muka IPA
Mar 25, 2024
Seagrass beds are culturally and ecologically important habitats in the proposed Tayaritja Milaythina Muka Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). This collaborative hub project is mapping their extent for the first time. The results will contribute to the management plan being developed by the Pakana community for the proposed IPA, and to a Pakana Ranger seagrass monitoring…