jaybee
10-07-2004, 08:51 AM
A leading coral researcher honoured in Hobart today believes the Great Barrier Reef is being well managed.
Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University has won the top annual award given by the Australian Marine Sciences Association.
His most recent work has made a link between over-fishing and an explosion of seaweed and algae, leading to coral decline.
Professor Hughes says the biggest challenge in the future is to anticipate climate change by maintaining healthy fish stocks in areas with abundant coral.
"Unfortunately the biggest thing we've learnt over the past 10 years is how to kill a coral reef," he said.
"It's a very simple recipe, you pollute it and you overfish it and then it changes in a way that's very hard to recover from."
Last Update: Wednesday, July 7, 2004. 12:49pm (AEST)
For the first time scientists have mapped the temperature of the sea surface around the whole of Australia going back 10 years.
The database has been set up by the CSIRO and charts changes in temperature and ocean currents.
Oceanographer David Griffin says it has pinpointed a unique stretch of coastline off the border of South Australia and Victoria.
He says this region has colder water in summer than in winter and is a high activity area for commercial fishing.
"The narrow stretch of coast there, the Bonney up, is the only part of Australia where this cold water comes to the surface," he said.
"There's such a contrast - Australia is such a contrast with the rest of the world where that happens in many places and is the basis of their fishing industries.
"In Australia we only have that tiny region of cold water and most of our fisheries do not rely on that sort of what we call a temperate ecosystem."
Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University has won the top annual award given by the Australian Marine Sciences Association.
His most recent work has made a link between over-fishing and an explosion of seaweed and algae, leading to coral decline.
Professor Hughes says the biggest challenge in the future is to anticipate climate change by maintaining healthy fish stocks in areas with abundant coral.
"Unfortunately the biggest thing we've learnt over the past 10 years is how to kill a coral reef," he said.
"It's a very simple recipe, you pollute it and you overfish it and then it changes in a way that's very hard to recover from."
Last Update: Wednesday, July 7, 2004. 12:49pm (AEST)
For the first time scientists have mapped the temperature of the sea surface around the whole of Australia going back 10 years.
The database has been set up by the CSIRO and charts changes in temperature and ocean currents.
Oceanographer David Griffin says it has pinpointed a unique stretch of coastline off the border of South Australia and Victoria.
He says this region has colder water in summer than in winter and is a high activity area for commercial fishing.
"The narrow stretch of coast there, the Bonney up, is the only part of Australia where this cold water comes to the surface," he said.
"There's such a contrast - Australia is such a contrast with the rest of the world where that happens in many places and is the basis of their fishing industries.
"In Australia we only have that tiny region of cold water and most of our fisheries do not rely on that sort of what we call a temperate ecosystem."