Article
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…
New collection of Marine and Coastal Hub research overviews for 2025
Aug 15, 2025
The overviews are:
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,…
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…
Tropical shellfish reefs mapped across northern Australia
Jun 10, 2025
Until recently, little was known about the distribution of tropical shellfish reefs, and very little is known about these reefs globally. Researchers from Griffith University have now developed a method to locate them using satellite imagery, ground-truthing their findings during field visits. In the field they confirmed the accuracy of the remote sensing method and…
Improving sea snake monitoring in Western Australia’s prawn fisheries
Jun 10, 2025
This need is being addressed in Western Australia’s Shark Bay and Exmouth Gulf fisheries. Researchers and commercial fisheries have teamed up in a project funded by the Marine and Coastal Hub to improve sea snake bycatch reporting. The project is achieving impressive results. Since 2022, the rate of photo-verified sea snake records in Shark Bay…
Drones trialled for seagrass monitoring at Thursday Island
Jun 10, 2025
In April 2025, researchers from James Cook University’s TropWATER tested drone surveys over a large seagrass meadow on Thursday Island. The selected site offered an excellent opportunity to capture high-resolution images of coastal seagrass from above. Flights were timed to coincide with low tides on April 4–5, when the seagrass beds were exposed. Drones were…
Seagrass comeback: protecting vital habitats at Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Apr 3, 2025
Early results from this trial are promising. After three months, protected seagrass area in the first of four barriers to be installed had already reached 20% coverage and 8 cm in height, compared with just 2% coverage and 3 cm height outside these areas. These results suggest a positive future trajectory for both the seagrass…
A hub of opportunity for Australia’s new generation of marine scientists
Mar 27, 2025
Eloise Wilson-Mayne: readying data for decisions about windfarm development In 2015, when it was time for Eloise Wilson-Mayne to decide what to study for her bachelor’s degree, a passion for understanding things at their fundamental level led her to choose mathematics and physics at the University of Tasmania. There, she became engaged with the problem-solving…
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…