Sawfish rescue caught on video
In September 2012, as Top End floodplains were drying, NERP Marine Biodiversity Hub and Northern Hub scientist Peter Kyne received an alert from Daly River Traditional Owner Rita Purak that two largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) were stranded in a waterhole near the Daly River. Rita knew the sawfish were uncommon because she had been helping Charles Darwin University scientist Peter Kyne and CSIRO's Richard Pillans with their field work, monitoring the movements of sawfish in the Northern...
"To save fish and birds" The New York Times
5 February 2014
A global study by Tasmanian researchers shows what is needed to make marine parks effective, the findings of which were published in Nature.
In collaboration with overseas investigators and skilled recreational divers, University of Tasmania biologists, including researchers from the NERP Marine Biodiversity Hub, counted numbers and sizes of more than 2000 fish species along underwater transect lines set at 1986 sites in 40 countries. They then used this...
New hotspots of marine fish diversity revealed in Nature
26 September 2013
New global patterns of marine fish diversity have been revealed using information collected through a ‘citizen science’ initiative developed in Tasmania. As part of the Reef Life Survey program, committed recreational SCUBA divers are trained and supported to survey numbers of reef animals worldwide. Analysis of information provided by Reef Life Survey volunteers over the past six years has revealed new hotspots of marine biodiversity, including southwestern...
Tracking threatened sawfish down the Adelaide (while trying not to look like croc bait!)
Follow Marine Hub PhD student Kate Buckley's blog while she tracks threatened sawfish down the Adelaide River in the Northern Territory.
Hubs participating in Darwin’s National Threatened Species Day
Two NERP hubs are participating in this year’s National Threatened Species Day on Saturday 7 September at Darwin Waterfront – the Northern Australia Hub and Marine Biodiversity Hub. Videos, slide shows and brochures will focus on the management of listed and rare species including sawfish and river sharks, and the impact feral cats are having on native mammals.
Northern Australia Hub scientists will demonstrate how mammal trapping equipment is used to survey small mammals, and there...
Underwater video from Abrolhos Islands
Recorded as part of a scientific research project conducted by the Department of Fisheries in collaboration with the University of Western Australia and CSIRO, this project aimed to describe and compare fish assemblages of the upper slope (100-600 m) along the west and north coasts of Western Australia. The footage was collected from a research survey in November 2010, onboard the Research Vessel Naturaliste. A total of 50 stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Videos were deployed, recording...
Short film highlights sawfish and river shark research
Watch researchers from the NERP Marine Biodiversity Hub and the Northern Australia Hub investigating the population size and movements of sawfish and river sharks in the waterways of Kakadu National Park. Video
In a collaborative project between these two hubs, researchers are investigating the population size and movements of sawfish, speartooth sharks and northern...
Workshop on acoustics and automated video processing - 11 and 12 June 2013
This workshop aims to bring together CSIRO and invited external experts who have expertise or are currently working on the processing of acoustics data and automated video data processing for the purposes of fisheries and environmental monitoring. The applications of the acoustics and video data processing include, but not limited to, (1) reconstructing bathymetry maps, processing bathymetry and backscatter images produced from Multibeam Sonar Systems (MBSS) to generate products such as...
New collaborative and automated tools for analysis of marine imagery and video
March 2013
A new tool to help transform raw underwater images into quantitative information useful for science and policy decisions has been developed by a team of scientists from Australian marine organisations, universities, and state and federal governments.
The tool, known as CATAMI - Collaborative and Automated Tools for Analysis of Marine Imagery and video - will help the whole marine community by making it easier to aggregate, annotate and automate imagery thereby...