Secret Life of Kimberley Corals

GRAHAM LLOYD 

From:

The Australian 

March 24, 2012 12:00AM

THE remote Kimberley coast, widely considered to be the planet's last great tropical marine frontier, is slowly beginning to yield its secrets.

At the height of tropical cyclone Lua, which this week hammered the region with winds of up to 160km/h, marine scientist Ali McCarthy, 24, became the first person to witness the spawning of Kimberley onshore corals.

The event took place nine days after the full moon and after two wet, windy nights of monitoring aquariums at Cygnet Bay, about 200km north of Broome.

The captive spawning mirrored exactly what was happening on reefs a few hundred metres away, where the waters were awash with slicks of bright blue and pink secretions as corals released their gametes into the water for fertilisation.

The event, which can be accurately predicted, is remarkable for more than the way in which it will help explain the lifecycle of one of the world's least understood coral regions. The Kimberley coast is recognised as the most coral diverse area in Western Australia and may rival the Red Sea with 280 species of hard coral from 55 genera, many new to science. The research will help unlock the secrets of why Kimberley corals are thriving where contemporary marine science says they should not even exist.

"The environment in which the corals exist is almost beyond the normal parameters for coral survival, let alone growth," said Ms McCarthy.The onshore reefs of Cygnet Bay experience water temperatures of up to 40C without bleaching. They also withstand 12m tides, extreme turbidity and ocean acidification that would be devastating to other coral systems.

Fishing fears stall marine parks

Daniel Mercer

The West Australian

Attempts to set up marine parks in WA's waters are getting bogged down amid fears about how they will affect fishers, the Barnett Government's marine parks advisor has warned.

Marine Parks and Reserves Authority chairman Eric Streitberg said negative perceptions were dominating the debate about marine parks at the expense of their "demonstrable" benefits.

Writing in the authority's annual report, the respected oil and gas industry veteran noted the difficulty in reaching a balance between conservation and "extractive use" interests, namely fishing.

He said the situation was invariably leading to "processes that are often very protracted".

"The debate over reserves is often dominated by the perceived negative impacts on extractive users, and what is often overlooked, or lost sight of in the debate, are the demonstrated major positive social and economic benefits of reserves," Mr Streitberg wrote.

Mr Streitberg's comments come as the Government continues to struggle in its efforts to establish a network of marine parks in State waters between the coast and three nautical miles offshore.

Despite touting the proposed Camden Sound marine park in the Kimberley as one of Australia's most important conservation projects in 2009, Premier Colin Barnett has failed deliver an outcome.

A number of other marine parks, including one off WA's South West coast, have stalled as differences between Environment Minister Bill Marmion and Fisheries and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore reach stalemate.

World Wildlife Fund WA director Paul Gamblin backed Mr Streitberg's concerns, saying the uncertainty shrouding the marine park debate in WA was leading to longer delays on proposals.

Mr Gamblin said people were often receptive to marine parks once they had been established but the delays were fuelling fears about them.

"The focus on some of the negatives can be exacerbated by delay," he said.

"People generally don't like uncertainty.

"The longer you stretch out these processes the more uncertain they can become and it doesn't foster the environment where you get the best outcomes."

North-west Marine Bioregional Plan submissions close 28 November

Submissions to the draft North-west Marine Bioregional Plan and proposed marine reserves network close 28 November.

The draft Marine Bioregional Plan and marine reserves network proposal for the North-west marine region were launched by the Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Tony Burke, on  23 August 2011.

Copies of these documents and other supporting materials are available at www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/north-west/index.html

 Everyone with an interest in this process is encouraged to make a formal submission to the department before the conclusion of the 90 day consultation period on 28 November 2011.  Submissions can be made online at http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/north-west/consultation/index.html#submissions

If you would like to contact the team with responsibility for the North-west marine bioregional planning process, please email: Northwest.MarinePlan@environment.gov.au

Marine reserves not enough: report

FLIP PRIOR, The West Australian

November 10, 2011, 5:40 pm

The Federal Government's proposed marine reserves in WA's north-west do not go far enough to protect cetacean species including humpback whales and snub-nosed dolphins, leaving them increasingly vulnerable to threats from the growing oil and gas industry, a new report claims.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare report, compiled by marine scientists, described the region's waters extending from Kalbarri up to the WA-NT border as the "last great whale haven" in Australia, which include the world's largest humpback whale population.

The report recorded 32 cetacean species as living in or migrating to the area, but just four - the snubfin dolphin, Indo-Pacific humpback and bottlenose dolphins and humpback whale - are recognised in the Federal Government's proposed bioregional plan.

With their highly refined acoustic senses, cetaceans are vulnerable to human-generated noise pollution from dredging, construction, explosions and seismic surveys and drilling, as well as fisheries, shipping and habitat degradation.

The Government's marine reserves offered little protection to the animals when "vast tracts" of ocean were being handed over to oil and gas companies for exploitation, the report said.

Areas of greatest risk identified by the report included the Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo Reef, Barrow Island, Quondong Point and James Price Point, Browse Island, Scott Reef and Ashmore Reef.

Environs Kimberley spokesman Martin Pritchard said less than one per cent of the north-west marine area was protected.

"We are really concerned that the Federal Government will cave into the demands of the oil and gas industry rather than protect marine life up here," he said.

"In their draft plan, they could have taken the opportunity to put in a reserve adjoining the proposed State Government North Kimberley marine park proposal - but they haven't."

There was only one highly protected area within the Kimberley Marine Reserve, placed specifically to protect the humpback whale calving grounds.

Kimberley whale expert Richard Costin said the report indicated that Commonwealth and State marine reserves systems showed a lack of coordination and did not actually provide any meaningful protection for cetaceans.

"The classic example, of course, is the proposed Camden Sound marine park, which has only a very small sanctuary area set aside for the humpback whales," he said.

"That hasn't continued on into Commonwealth waters to probably the most important area that runs across to Adele Island through the outer shoals and down to Eco Beach.

"All the boundaries for the proposed marine parks have done is provide certainty for access to the oil and gas industry."

IFAW campaigns officer Matthew Collis said the north-west waters were globally environmentally significant with incredible diversity of whales and dolphins and needed stronger protection and more research to be carried out.

"Of the proposed reserves, only three are highly protected and two are far offshore," Mr Collis said. "Even that highly protected area (in the Kimberley) doesn't cover all the areas in which the humpback whales breed and calve."

Environment Minister Bill Marmion said State Government was committed to expanding the marine parks system in WA, including the four proposed in Camden Sound, Eighty Mile Beach, Roebuck Bay and North Kimberley.

He said the State and Commonwealth Governments had agreed to work collaboratively in planning processes and provide complementary conservation measures across jurisdictional boundaries wherever possible.

However, there was no overlap between marine park and reserve proposals in Commonwealth waters, and those in State waters, he said

Kimberley coast yields natural treasure trove

Michelle Ridley, The West Australian.

An octopus that can lose an arm at will, a coral that turns purple when it is stressed and another coral that produces mucus to clean dirt from itself are just some of the animals uncovered by marine scientists on a trip to the Kimberley.

The three-week field trip, led by the WA Museum, involved 14 researchers walking on the reef and diving to survey marine life.

The team included experts in algae, seagrasses, corals, sponges, polychaetes (worms), echinoderms such as starfish and sea urchins, crustaceans, molluscs and fish.

WA Museum cruise leader and dive supervisor Clay Bryce said the researchers discovered a new species of soft coral, a juvenile of a new species of fish they had found on an earlier field trip and a new genus of algae.

They also discovered a new species of seaweed, nicknamed Rasta weed because of its similarity to Rastafarian dreadlocks.

Mr Bryce said one of the most interesting animals encountered on the trip was the octopus Ameloctopus litoralis, which has a head about 2cm long and arms about 14cm long.

The octopus does not have an ink sac, but can drop its arms to escape if attacked.

The 220km survey of Kimberley waters last month was the first of four field trips in a five-year study of the region funded by Woodside Petroleum.

"It's the biggest biodiversity project running in Australia at the moment," Mr Bryce said. "We have 14 people on the reef or diving at any one time.

"Each person dives for an hour or walks on the reef for an hour and then we move to the next site."

The project involves researchers from the WA Museum, the Australian Museum, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the Queensland Museum, Museum Victoria, the WA Herbarium, Curtin University and the CSIRO.

On the most recent field trip, researchers filmed the marine habitat, analysed the water quality and collected DNA in addition to the survey of underwater life.

Mr Bryce said the team collected about 1500 specimens and more than 1000 DNA samples on the trip.

"It's a significant amount of biological material to be researched and that's just this year," he said. "In the next three years we'll probably do about the same."

Mr Bryce said there was a huge amount to discover, with 2500 islands off the Kimberley coast.

"This is really one of Australia's last frontiers, not only because of its remoteness, but also biologically speaking," he said.

But the isolation of the Kimberley coast, coupled with low visibility, strong tides and the possibility of stonefish, crocodiles and sharks, can make it a dangerous place to work if precautions are not taken.

"We manage our diving and our reef walks very carefully, it's remote and a difficult place to work," Mr Bryce said.

Video diaries of the field trip will be released today at www.museum.wa.gov.au/kimberley.