Article
Research Plan 2025 projects ready to launch
Mar 26, 2025
The projects focus on priorities such as improved monitoring of threatened biodiversity values, protected places management, and providing comprehensive data for environmental assessments. They will also address pressing challenges such as assessing the impacts of extreme weather events, updating knowledge on white sharks, and crown-of-thorns starfish control. 2025 Marine and Coastal Hub projects
Healthy turnout for 2025 Marine and Coastal Hub Research Showcase
Mar 26, 2025
The event featured presentations on key research themes, including Indigenous knowledge and partnerships, threatened and migratory species, coastal restoration, protected places, and regional planning. The first day started with talks focused on ‘Indigenous knowledge and partnerships’. These talks highlighted how Traditional ecological knowledge and successful collaborations help conserve marine environments. A session on ‘Protected places’…
Not all reefs are rocky: new map sharpens focus on functional reefs across southern Australia
Mar 26, 2025
The map shows the likely presence of ‘functional reef’ across 10–200 metre ocean depths between Western Australia’s Shark Bay and the Victoria-New South Wales border. It was developed in a Marine and Coastal Hub project led by the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania and the University of Western…
Rangers from across the Kimberley learn drone skills to monitor dugongs
Dec 18, 2024
While dugongs are declining worldwide, Australia has a large proportion of the remaining population. About 12,000 dugongs live in the Kimberley’s pristine waters. They hold important cultural and social values for Indigenous communities who are working with government agencies and scientists to develop and implement community-based sustainable dugong management. Monitoring dugong populations across the vast…
Working toward Indigenous collaboration best-practice for hub research teams
Dec 13, 2024
To support this commitment, the hub hosted two online True Tracks© workshops in October and November. More than 60 hub researchers attended the workshops which explored the developing rights framework for Indigenous knowledge and cultural expression. The True Tracks© workshops were presented by solicitors from Terri Janke and Company, a firm with more than 20…
Enter the exquisite seagrass beds of Furneaux/Tayaritja Islands
Dec 13, 2024
Seagrass beds around the Furneaux/Tayaritja Islands are some of the most extensive in south-eastern Australia. Previous surveys in the 1990s indicate the seagrasses grow to depths of more than 40 metres. This hub project is using a benthic observation survey system (BOSS) and intertidal sampling to see what seagrass and algal species grow around the…
Best-practice manual for social surveys: gathering our thoughts on marine parks
Dec 12, 2024
The survey asked participants about their awareness of two local Australian Marine Parks (AMPs): Geographe and South-west Corner. Of the people surveyed, 12% were aware of at least one of the parks. A repeat survey in 2023 found awareness had tripled to 36%. These surveys were comparable because they used the same survey method and…
Method in microplastics: best-practice manual builds collaboration and comparable datasets
Dec 12, 2024
“It was overwhelming trying to find and follow the literature, papers, opinions and ideas, with different people saying different things,” she says. “I’ve since heard similar stories told in multiple research groups, both in Australia and internationally. Anyone in my shoes would agree that knowing what method to follow saves a lot of time, resources…
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…