great barrier reef – Michmutters

Tag: great barrier reef

Categories
Australia

Australia’s largest land-based coral farm records ‘amazing’ spawning event

Australia's largest land-based coral farm records 'amazing' spawning event

Baby corals have been successfully spawned and grown for the first time by an Australian farm in a process that could one day help restore the Great Barrier Reef.

Monsoon Aquatics operates Australia’s largest dedicated land-based coral farm at Burnett Heads near Bundaberg, where the company recorded the first spawning event of Homophyllia australis last November.

Almost 10 months later, the company has been able to grow baby corals in captivity, hailing the spawning event with success.

“That’s a species of coral which is basically only found from around Pancake Creek up to the Whitsunday area and Swains Reef, and so it’s unique to this southern Great Barrier Reef area,” company director Daniel Kimberley said.

coral give 2
Daniel Kimberley operates Australia’s largest land-based coral farm.(ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)

Craig Humphrey from the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s national sea simulator said it was a “significant achievement”.

“If there’s a decline in the reef… these things could be bred in captivity to supply the market,” he said.

From the reef to the aquarium

Monsoon Aquatics is one of 39 active license holders in Queensland’s commercial coral fishery who can target a broad range of specialty corals to be sold to aquariums and hobbyists.

According to Queensland Fisheries, there was 100 tonnes of coral harvested from the Great Barrier Reef in the 2020-21 financial year.

Moonsoon Aquatics Coral 1
A sample of coral at the Monsoon Aquatics facility in Bundaberg.(Supplied: Monsoon Aquatics)

“If you were to look at the reef as a whole, it’s a fraction of what’s out there,” Mr Kimberley said.

“The worldwide aquarium industry is worth over $US4 billion.

“A lot of that product is coming out of Indonesia and Vietnam and Tonga and Fiji and places like that, so there’s still huge scope for Australia to grow in that space.”

Mr Kimberley said successfully spawning and growing corals in captivity would mean a reduced reliance on harvesting wild corals.

“It’s about producing corals for our current ornamental market beyond what we can take from the wild, what we can harvest under quota,” he said.

coral hands
The worldwide aquarium industry is worth billions of dollars.(ABC Wide Bay: Johanna Marie)

The life of coral

Footage shows the coral releasing eggs which are then fertilized and develop into larvae before eventually growing into baby coral.

“They start morphing into essentially what looks like a little slug, and that little slug will float around in the water column until it senses the particular substrate and habitat where it wants to settle,” Mr Kimberley said.

“It will then go to the bottom, stick onto the rocks, and then start to form its first mouth and tentacles and become a coral.”

coral eggs
The eggs develop into larvae, and eventually grow into coral.(Supplied: Monsoon Aquatics)

Coral spawns around the same time every year in both the wild and in captivity.

“It’s the change in water temperature, day length and the phase of the Moon, so in general it occurs just after a full moon in November and December,” Mr Humphrey said.

reef restoration

A report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) found there has been a rapid recovery of coral on the Great Barrier Reef from past storms and bleaching events, but it has come at the expense of a diversity of coral species.

Mr Kimberley believes commercial enterprise should be leading reef restoration projects, and spawning coral in captivity was the way of the future.

An underwater shot showing a scientist wearing a snorkel, holding a tow bar, and floating over a large expanse of corals.
A scientist is led around the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, as part of a monitoring project.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

“The really exciting thing for us is that it’s the first steps towards habitat restoration. And one day being a part of the solution to replant the Great Barrier Reef,” Mr Kimberley said.

“I think to drive these changes in these restorations… it needs to be commercially viable and driven by industry.”

Mr Humphrey says researchers are exploring it as a possibility.

“If you do culture them in a lab or in aquaculture setting, how do you get them out to the reef? And how do you retain them within the reef,” he said.

“There’s a whole range of research being undertaken in all those areas.”

.

Categories
Australia

‘Major barriers’ to restoring Australia’s degraded coastal ecosystems as scientists push for national plan

A man wearing a bright blue fishing shirt and a hat by a wetland.

Squeezed between tropical wetlands and the Great Barrier Reef, the wetlands of Mungalla Station should be a colorful haven teeming with life.

The former pastoral property in north Queensland was, until not long ago, choked with weeds and devoid of fish.

James Cook University’s Center for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research associate professor Nathan Waltham describes efforts to restore it to health as the most rewarding project he has ever worked on.

It involved seven years of exchanging scientific knowledge with the Nywaigi traditional owners.

“It’s been a two-way learning street and seeing country slowly healing and seeing the Indigenous rangers become so inspired, creating jobs for Indigenous youth has just been so rewarding,” Dr Waltham said.

“Unfortunately, it’s very small scale, and we need to now be thinking about this as an example that can be taken to much larger scales.”

Harder than it needs to be

Restoration projects like the one at Mungalla have experienced success around Australia.

But new research led by Megan Saunders, a senior research scientist at the CSIRO’s oceans and atmosphere division, and Dr Waltham reveals there are major barriers to projects going ahead at the scale required to restore the nation’s degraded coasts.

An aerial image of a wetland surrounded by tropical green vegetation.
Mungalla Station is now restored to a coastal wetland.(Supplied)

They found there was insufficient funding to restore many degraded sites and that Australia lacked a consistent approach to mapping and classifying coastal and marine ecosystems.

Processes to engage with traditional owners on restoration projects are often not even executed, they found.

Mungalla’s health has also slightly declined since its restoration project concluded, highlighting the need for ongoing love and care.

Sometimes when restoration projects do receive funding, they are brought unstuck by complex approval processes.

“[It can be] anywhere from 50 per cent, 60 per cent of the allocated funding time just to get the approval and, unfortunately, that is a challenge we have to break down,” Dr Waltham said.

“That has possibly huge implications on projects even starting.”

A portrait image of a smiling woman wearing glasses and a blue top, standing in front of the sea and mountains in the background.
Dr Saunders is the lead author of the research into scaling up coastal and marine restoration work.(ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)

Climate the biggest threat

The main threat to coastal low-lying areas is, unsurprisingly, climate change and its associated threats such as more severe storms.

Scientists this month confirmed frequent El Niño events caused hundreds of kilometers of coastal mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria to die.

Dr Saunders, who specializes in coastal and marine restoration, said Australia needed a national plan to restore coastal ecosystems, involving state and local governments, First Nations people, philanthropic groups and the finance sector.

Examples of coastal restoration in environments that have been irreversibly altered include the retrofitting of seawalls in Sydney Harbor to make them a more suitable habitat for marine life to flourish.

Dr Saunders said adopting a road map similar to the one set out in their research paper could make Australia a “world leader” in coastal restoration.

Indigenous Rangers from the Carpentaria Land Council look at dead mangroves
Mangroves along the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria have died in recent years due to the effects of climate change.(ABC North West Queensland: Lucy Murray)

Meanwhile, she said, across the nation, there was a lot of work to do.

“Oyster reefs in Australia have declined by 92 per cent since the arrival of Europeans and the coastal development activities that have happened,” Dr Saunders said.

“We’ve also lost 95 per cent of Tasmanian kelp beds more recently due to warming water temperatures, so our natural assets, in particular, are in decline due to climate change.”

.

Categories
Australia

Feeding coral larvae helps them grow and survive, new research finds

Feeding coral larvae helps them grow and survive, new research finds

Little is known about the dietary requirements of coral larvae but new Australian research has revealed feeding them can improve their chances of survival.

A study by Southern Cross University PhD candidate Colleen Rodd, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found giving the larvae supplement nutrients boosts their energy at a critical early stage of development.

Scientists expect the findings will improve the effectiveness of coral restoration projects being done to help degraded systems such as the Great Barrier Reef.

“Our research has shown if you do feed coral, you can drastically increase the number of those larvae that actually turn into corals on a reef, which is actually pretty exciting,” Ms Rodd said.

A shooting task

Adult coral reproduces by releasing gametes into the water, which form into coral larvae.

Those larvae face a “particularly precarious” time in the water before settling on to the reef where they grow complex skeletons.

“The larvae themselves have a finite amount of energy and they use up about 70 per cent of that in the first week of swimming around,” Ms Rodd said.

“From there they can run out of energy and die either before they can transform into a coral or shortly thereafter because transforming from a larvae into a coral is very energetically costly for them.

“Most of those larvae will die if we don’t intervene there.”

She said the feeding allowed the larvae “a little bit of leeway to make it until they turn into a polyp where they can start feeding like adults”.

What do they eat?

The coral larvae in Ms Rodd’s research were fed blended artemia — a crustacean also known as brine shrimp.

The feed contained a mix of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

A woman wearing a blue top in a laboratory with equipment set up to feed coral
PhD candidate Colleen Rodd works on the food-reared coral larvae experiment.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

How exactly the larvae feed remains somewhat of a mystery, however.

“That’s where we’re taking the research next — to figure out the exact mechanisms through which they feed,” Ms Rodd said.

“Coral larvae are very, very, very small — less than a millimeter in length — and it was assumed they can’t feed.

“They have an oral pore, not quite a mouth but nevertheless a way to take in food, but they can also absorb it through their cell wall.”

Coral-rearing cones set up for a feeding experiment at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Coral-rearing cones set up for a feeding experiment at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

Implementing the research

Ms Rodd said feeding coral larvae used for restoration projects would be “very cheap to implement”.

Two types of mass-spawning reef-building coral species used in the research were cultured at the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s National Sea Simulator experimental facility near Townsville.

So far though, larvae have not been observed feeding in the wild.

An image showing the extent of growth of coral larvae that have been fed brine shrimp.
An image showing the extent of growth of coral larvae that have been fed brine shrimp.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

One theory is wild coral larvae obtain their nutrients after unfertilized sperm and eggs break down in the water during spawning.

“It hasn’t been seen because you need a microscope to see it, but we are looking at some research down the line where we explore those kinds of questions,” Ms Rodd said.

“From our understanding of their life cycle, it [was] assumed they can’t feed and that they don’t or that they don’t feed because they can’t.

“This actually changes our understanding of their basic biology, which has some pretty cool implications for restoration work.”

Ms Rodd will present the research this week at the Australian Marine Sciences Association conference in Cairns.

.

Categories
Australia

Tanya Plibersek proposes blocking Clive Palmer’s Queensland coal mine on environmental grounds

A woman speaks at a lectern

For the first time in Australian history, a federal environment minister has set the wheels in motion to reject a coal mine.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has proposed the rejection of Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal Project on the grounds it is likely to damage the Great Barrier Reef.

The decision remains a “proposal” because a final decision can only be made after 10 days of further consultation, including public comment. But given the wide range of reasons cited by the minister, it is unlikely to be approved.

The planned mining site is just 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef near Rockhampton, and was likely to have contributed to ocean pollution, according to the minister.

“Based on the information available to me at this stage, I believe that the project would be likely to have unacceptable impacts to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and the values ​​of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and National Heritage Place,” Ms Plibersek said.

A map shows the location of a mine and the location of the Great Barrier Reef.
Clive Palmer’s proposed coal mine site is just 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.(abcnews)

The decision was also based on potential impacts to local water resources.

Although it is the first time a federal environment minister has proposed to reject an application to develop a coal mine, the Queensland government recommended the rejection last year.

The move was announced the same day the government passed its climate bill through the lower house, with the support of the cross bench including the Greens.

The Greens have been pushing the government to reject all coal and gas projects while the government has said it will approve those that stack up environmentally.

“That’s now one down and 113 to go. There’s 114 of these projects in the pipeline,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said.

The Greens have also been pushing for a “climate trigger” that would require the potential impacts of coal and gas projects on climate change to be considered by the environment minister. As it stands, the potential climate change impact of this mine was not considered in the approval process.

Conservationists, activists glad minister ‘listened to warnings’

The preliminary decision was applauded by conservationists and climate activists.

“This is the right proposed decision for the Great Barrier Reef from the environment minister,” Cherry Muddle from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.

“We are glad she has listened to warnings from government-appointed and independent scientists, as well as the Queensland government who said the mine was ‘not suitable’ to proceed in April 2021.

“In the wake of the fourth mass bleaching event on the reef since 2016, it is vital new coal and gas projects like this one are refused. It shows the government are serious about saving the reef and tackling the issues that threaten it.”

A photo from above the Great Barrier Reef shades of blue ocean
Queensland’s environment department deemed Clive Palmer’s project “not suitable” to proceed last year.(Facebook: Great Barrier Reef Legacy/File photo)

The proposed project included two open-cut pits north of Rockhampton over an area of ​​more than 2,660 hectares.

The detailed reasons for the proposed decision have not yet been released, but included impacts on a world heritage area, and on-water resources. The project’s potential impacts on threatened species was not listed as a reason for rejection.

The public has 10 days to comment on the proposed decision.

Mr Palmer’s company Central Queensland Coal was not available for comment.

The Queensland government concluded in 2021 the mine would generate royalties for the state of between $703 million and $766 million in total.

.

Categories
Australia

Great Barrier Reef coral cover at record levels after mass-bleaching events, report shows

An underwater shot showing a scientist wearing a snorkel, holding a tow bar, and floating over a large expanse of corals.

Record coral cover is being seen across much of the Great Barrier Reef as it recovers from past storms and mass-bleaching events. But the new coral taking over is leaving the reef more vulnerable to future devastating impacts, according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

AIMS’ 36-year Long-Term Monitoring Program has seen continued dramatic improvement in coral cover in the northern and central sections of the reef, following a period without intense disturbances.

The results come off the back of mass coral bleaching events that have happened at an unprecedented frequency — four out of six occurred in the last seven years. Mass bleaching, caused by marine heatwaves, was not known to occur at all prior to 1998.

When the water gets too hot, the algae that live inside the coral and provide it with most of its energy is expelled. If it remains too hot for too long, the coral stars and dies.

“The 2020 and 2022 bleaching events, while extensive, didn’t reach the intensity of the 2016 and 2017 events and, as a result, we have seen less mortality,” AIMS chief executive Paul Hardisty said.

“These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover in periods free of intense disturbances.”

Line graphs show coral cover in the northern and central Great Barrier Reef declined after 2012, but increased after 2020.
The percentage of coral cover in the northern and central Great Barrier Reef has increased.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Eighty-seven reefs were surveyed between August 2021 and March 2022 as part of the report, which showed cover in the north increased from 27 per cent to 36 per cent, and from 26 per cent to 33 per cent in the central section.

That recovery has led to the highest-ever coral cover the Long-Term Monitoring Program has recorded in those sections, which begin north of Mackay.

But Dr Hardisty said the frequent bleaching showed how vulnerable the reef remained.

Despite the good news, the southern section, which extends from the Whitsundays down past the Keppel group of islands, has seen a small reduction in coral cover largely due to an ongoing outbreak of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

Some thick, spiky red crown-of-thorns starfish are seen crawling around branches of white coral.
Crown-of-thorns starfish (seen in the front) continue to decimate coral reefs.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

“This shows how vulnerable the reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer lasting,” Dr Hardisty said.

But even the southern section of the reef remains in relatively good health, with 34 per cent coral cover, a reduction from a recent peak of 37 per cent in 2017.

Increased coral cover could come at a cost

The rapid growth in coral cover appears to have come at the expense of the diversity of coral on the reef, with most of the increases accounted for by fast-growing branching coral called acropora.

Those corals grow quickly after disturbances but are very easily destroyed by storms, heatwaves and crown-of-thorns starfish. By increasing the dominance of those corals, the reef can become more vulnerable.

Colorful little fish swim among a variety of healthy-looking corals on the Great Barrier Reef.
Acropora corals have proliferated across much of the northern and central parts of the reef.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

It is a point acknowledged by Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville.

“While it’s great to see increases in coral cover of a particular species, we can’t ignore that the diversity is really what we need to emphasise, and that’s going to be key to a healthy ecosystem over the longer term,” Professor Rummer said .

“While one species might be fast growing and repopulating very quickly, that also might be the most susceptible to some of the stressors that the Great Barrier Reef has faced over and over and over again over the past decade.”

Mike Emslie wearing an Australian Institute of Marine Science T-shirt, and smiling in a portrait taken near the ocean.
Mike Emslie says Acropora corals are vulnerable to wave damage and bleaching.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science/Marie Roman)

Senior research scientist Mike Emslie, who leads the AIMS Long Term-Monitoring Program, agreed the news was mixed when it came to acropora.

“These corals are particularly vulnerable to wave damage, like that generated by strong winds and tropical cyclones,” Dr Emslie said.

“They are also highly susceptible to coral bleaching, when water temperatures reach elevated levels, and are the preferred prey for crown-of-thorns starfish.

“This means that large increases in hard coral cover can quickly be negated by disturbances on reefs where acropora corals predominate.”

Reef remains in danger from rising temperatures

Around the world, coral reefs face a grim future unless urgent action is taken to drastically halt man-made global warming.

In 2018, the United Nations released a report warning that coral reefs worldwide were projected to decline by up to 90 per cent even if warming was capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

On a shelf of coral, some corals are a stark white colour.
In February 2022, various types of corals experienced bleaching, pictured here in the central part of the reef.(Supplied: Australian Institute of Marine Science)

Great Barrier Reef campaigner with the Australian Marine Conservation Society Cherry Muddle said while the findings were promising, the reef remained in danger.

“The fact remains that unless fossil-fuel emissions are drastically cut, the reef remains in danger from rising temperatures and more mass bleaching events,” she said.

“In the wake of the State of the Environment report, which showed Australian inshore reefs were in a poor and deteriorating condition due to climate- and water-pollution pressures, it is more important than ever that we ensure urgent action is taken to address all threats to the reef.”

.

Categories
Australia

Jellyfish filmed by scuba diver off Papua New Guinea could be rare or new species

Jellyfish filmed by scuba diver off Papua New Guinea could be rare or new species

When scuba diver Dorian Borcherds turned on his video camera, he became transfixed by the giant translucent mass bobbing along beside him.

What he had captured on film in the watery depths off Papua New Guinea now has marine biologists excited.

The jellyfish was believed to be one officially sighted only once before off the coast of Far North Queensland — a quarter of a century ago — but it could also be a new species, a researcher believes.

The owner of a Kavieng-based scuba dive company, Mr Borcherds was diving with a customer in December when he spotted the strange creature and described it on social media.

“Saw a new type of jellyfish while diving today. It has cool markings and is a bit bigger than a soccer ball and they are quite fast swimming,” he wrote at the time.

Still stumped, Mr Borcherds enlisted his daughter in South Africa for help.

“I thought it was interesting as I had never seen one of these before, so I felt [the video] to my daughter who downloaded a jellyfish app,” he said.

“It couldn’t be identified, so she uploaded the footage to the app and within half an hour she had a very excited jellyfish expert on the phone from Tasmania.”

That expert was Lisa-ann Gershwin from the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Service, who at first thought it was the same jellyfish caught on the Great Barrier Reef in May 1997.

A small spotted jellyfish in blueish water
Screenshots from a video shot in 1997 of the original specimen that was found on the Great Barrier Reef.(Supplied: Queensland Museum)

“I was completely gobsmacked when they sent me through the photos,” Dr Gershwin said.

“I thought, oh my God, what is this thing and where is it?

.

Categories
Business

Townsville’s ‘Sugar Shaker’ hotel is getting a makeover, prompting admirers to sift through its history

A black and white photo of Townsville's cityscape in the mid 70s. A round building, with what looks to be a spout, towers over.

It has been described as one Australia’s most recognizable buildings after the Sydney Opera House, but this icon is set for a face lift.

Townsville’s Sugar Shaker hotel has defined the city skyline for more than 46 years with its original brown sandstone color.

But now the building’s exterior is being completely repainted, prompting admirers to sift through its history.

An old, but color photograph of a busy city street. A post office sits before a much taller circular high rise building.
The “Sugar Shaker” is located in Townsville’s city heart on Flinders Street.(Supplied: Townsville City Council )

The hotel will maintain its silhouette, which resembles a sugar shaker with a distinctive spout-like shape at its peak.

Dr Mark Jones, a prominent Architect and Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, said the Sugar Shaker had become one of the most recognizable buildings in Australia.

“Most imagery of Townsville incorporates this building, not dissimilarly to the Sydney Opera House,” he said.

“I don’t think, apart from those two examples, there’s another building in Australia that so exemplifies the city in which it’s located.”

A black and white photograph taken from a helicopter captures the construction of a circular high rise building in the 1970s.
Townsville’s “Sugar Shaker” was built in the 1970s and remains the tallest building in the CBD.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

Dr Jones said at the time the building opened in 1976 as Hotel Townsville there were two similar properties in the country; the Tower Mill Hotel in Brisbane, and Australia Square in Sydney.

“I suspect that the architects for the Sugar Shaker drew some inspiration from those two buildings,” he said.

“But they went a step further with this interesting enclosure on the roof air conditioning cooling towers that gives it a sugar shaker shape.”

A black and white photo of Townsville's Flinders Street Mall.
The hotel is often used in imagery used to market Townsville.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

46 years after the building was erected in Townsville, debate on whether the resemblance was intentional continues.

“I’m not sure if they were directly thinking of a sugar shaker or if that came from people afterwards,” Dr Jones said.

“Either way, it’s a wonderful symbol for cane-growing region.

“I can’t think of another example, except for the sort of kitschy big banana and big pineapple-type installations.”

A wide shot of Townsville's modern CBD.
Forty-six years after the building was erected, the “Sugar Shaker” is being refurbished.(ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)

Director of marketing for lobby group Townsville Enterprise Lisa Woolfe said there were several local theories about the design.

“Apparently, it was modeled off a sugar shaker that was sold in a nearby cafe,” she said.

“But I have also heard over the years people refer to it as a lipstick.”

A color photograph of a regional city with one circular building preceding over all of the other properties.
There is debate about whether the buildings likeness to a sugar shaker was intentional.(Supplied: Townsville City Council)

Townsville’s deputy mayor Mark Molachino said he suspected the architects were intentional with their design.

“I don’t know the history of design, I will be honest,” he said.

“But whoever did design it has made it look as close to a sugar shaker as possible, so they have done a good job with the likeness.”

The hotel has been known as Centra Townsville, Townsville International Hotel and Holiday Inn over the years, but is currently owned by Hotel Grand Chancellor.

Manager Paul Gray said it was a “daunting” task to choose a new color for the “iconic” building.

“Locals are very passionate about the Sugar Shaker, but it did need a refresh,” Mr Gray said.

A photo of several balconies on a sandstone building. Half of them have been painted gray and white.
The ‘Sugar Shaker’ is expected to have been completely repainted by the end of August.(ABC North Qld: Chloe Chomicki)

The refurbishment, including a complete repaint of the building, is due to be completed by the end of August.

“The building itself is being painted in grey,” Mr Gray said.

“It’s going to have white running up the risers, just to break it up a little bit as well.

“I think it’ll tie in quite nicely with the buildings around the city and look a lot more modern.”

.