National Marine Science Committee release
'Establishing and supporting a national marine baselines and monitoring program’ 

During August 2015, The National Marine Science Plan 2015-2025 recommended a national approach to establish baselines and monitoring for the Australian marine environment.

Coordinated by the National Marine Science Committee (NMSC), the outcome was the working group report: 'Establishing and supporting a national marine baselines and monitoring program.'  Released earlier this month by Paul Hedge and colleagues, the report presents an audit of environmental, social and economic baseline data describing Australia's marine estate. The working group assigned this task by the NMSC captured 371 baseline and monitoring programs of national significance, and presented two options for how to establish a national approach to marine baselines and monitoring. 

OI Researcher in Physical Oceanography Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi contributed to the working group report which aimed to address the following key goals:

• Provide scientifically robust evidence-based understanding on marine ecosystem health, including status and trends;
• Evaluate environmental risks in the marine environment;
• Assess the oceans' potential to provide recourses;
• Evaluate the economic and social effectiveness of management;
• Improve seasonal and long-term climate predictions;
• Understand changes driven by natural variability in marine ecosystems; and
• Determine the effectiveness of marine conservation efforts, measures for marine protected areas and unprotected areas. 

Click here for access to the Summary and Technical Report Published by the National Marine Science Committee. 


"Used wisely, Australia’s ocean resources can generate increasing wealth, food and energy, and support sustainable living for generations."
 

New OI Featured Expedition
to the Pilbara Islands, Western Australia

Our latest Expedition celebrates a cross-institutional expedition to the remote Pilbara Archipelago, situated between the Exmouth Gulf and Dampier Archipelago World Heritage Nominated Region. 

The team of researchers spanning the Oceans Institute, Curtin University and former ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have been uncovering the resilience of marginal coral reefs and their islands to environmental change through the aptly named 'Island Resilience Project,' funded on a ARC DECRA Fellowship awarded to Dr Nicola Browne (Curtin University). 

Understanding reef dynamics and the production of carbonate material that builds coastal landforms such as coral cay islands is critical in conserving their ecosystem services and viability as nesting/rookeries for sea/shorebird populations and vulnerable sea turtle species that use their beaches as nesting sites. 

Click below to explore the Pilbara Islands!

Principal Investigators:

1. Dr Mick O'Leary (UWA Oceans Institute)
2. Mr Josh Bonesso (UWA Oceans Institute)
3. Dr Nicola Browne (Curtin University)
4. Dr Michael Cuttler (OI, Oceans Graduate School)
5. Dr Shannon Dee (BMT & Curtin University). 

Interested in sharing your expedition with us? 

The Oceans Institute 'Expeditions' is an interactive forum for OI researchers and collaborators to share their exciting research voyages and campaigns from across Western Australia and beyond. 

From the deepest depths of the Indian Ocean, to our shallow temperature and tropical coastlines, the aim is to deepen our collective understanding of the world's ocean, placing the Indian Ocean into context globally, by sharing these research endeavours with the oceans community.  

The OI is eager to share the expeditions of our researchers and collaborators. Please reach out to oceans@uwa.edu.au to request a feature on the OI Expeditions Page!

A New Review
On the importance of gender equity in Oceanography 

A review article published in the 'Annual Review of Marine Science,' addresses the importance and inclusion of gender equity within the oceanographic workforce, with an emphasis on how striving for equity will drive success of the oceanographic enterprise. 

The article describes the historical obstructions to gender equity within oceanography, and uses quantitative data on participation, achievement and recognition in the field to assess its progress over time and current status. 

Within the oceanographic discipline globally, approximately half of women receive PhDs, and this is equally resembled in earlier stages of academic employment. Yet there remains the need to push for further gender equality in the science, as reflected by the number of first-authored publications, grants, awards received by women researchers. 

The authors emphasise that the solution should be a collegial approach from within the oceanographic community, encouraging people to work together to provide a culture of equity so that all genders can thrive, whilst removing professional inequalities in the workplace.

To read the review in full follow the link below. 

Find out more and read the full article here: 

Inaugural IOMRC Seminar 2023
a resounding success 

On February 16, the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC) hosted the first in-house social seminar, bringing together researchers and students from across the IOMRC partnership. Keynote speakers included researchers from the UWA Oceans Institute, CSIRO, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The seminar was then followed by a social gathering allowing staff and Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students to mingle and stimulate future collaborations. 

The event marked the start of a monthly IOMRC seminar series to be held at UWA's Crawley campus. Stay tuned for up-coming presentations from our researchers over the coming months (in the event section). 

On behalf of the OI, congratulations to the IOMRC administrative team Desiree Allen, Gyembo Gyeltshen and Linda Raynor-Thomas for hosting an engaging event.  

Featured presenters from the Oceans Institute:

1. As/Prof Chris Fulton (Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, OI; AIMS).
2. Dr Di McLean (Adjunct Research Fellow, OI; AIMS).
3. Dr Tim Langlois (OI and SBS).

AIMS@UWA Spotlight Feature
live on the OI site 

AIMS@UWA PhD candidates are contributing vital research to the Reef Song project. Launched in 2022, Reef Song is part of the Australian Coral Reef Resilience Initiative (ACRRI), funded by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and BHP.

Reef Song forms part of the Australian Coral Reef Resilience Initiative (ACRRI), which integrates research spanning two World Heritage sites, Ningaloo Reef and the Great Barrier Reef, to develop innovative and impactful solutions for the sustainable management of Australia's coral reef environments. 

Research projects span fish-associated interactions that promote resilient coral reefs, building a foundation of knowledge on reef recovery and adaptation, and to develop new solutions that support coral reef restoration efforts. 

Marine conservation champion appointed Wen Family Chair

UWA sustainability projects win national funding