Don't Let Go of the Long Line

     New South Wales Fisheries is a cooperating organization with the National Marine Science Center. At home the equivalent organization in the sense of research and management roles would be the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. To gain further experience and expand my knowledge on the fisheries management in Australia, NSW Fisheries has allowed me to assist in their research. The project that I have been working on is a four year research project to reduce bytcatch in commercial fisheries. Bycatch refers to any part of the fishers catch that is not the target species. Current bycatch advancements thus far is largely the modification of the use of square mesh panels in codends. This utilizes the behavioural differences between prawns and fish to lessen the bycatch.  As the fish are herded together they try to escape by heading towards the top and sides of the codend and can escape through the open square-shaped meshes. By contrast, prawns have a limited reaction to the trawl and tumble along the bottom of the net into the codend.  The size of square-mesh used in the panel directly determines the size of fish that are allowed to escape. Studies in the oceanic prawn trawl fishery have shown that codends with relatively small panels of square-mesh were effective in removing up to 40% of the total unwanted bycatch (NSW Fisheries).  This sucess of the research thus far has led to further research on net placement and technique which is the current project I have the oppotunity to work on. NSW Fisheries cooperates with the local commercial fishermen, who allow us to attach devices to their nets that show the exact placement, depth, opening and movement of the nets and fuel usage while testing various net placements and set ups.  For each trawl we pull in the nets and sort the bycatch from the prawns being careful not to touch any of the poisonous fish, weigh the total bycatch and prawn weight, and take a sub sample in which we record size and species. Common bycatch found includes Mulloway, Bream, Ramseys perchlet, Sole, Flathead, Cat fish and Bullrout. The ultimate goal is to create a net design and placement combination that will further reduce bycatch and use less fuel without reducing yield (or reducing yield no more than the money they would be saving in lowering fuel expenses) thus an alternative that fishermen will actually implement because it does not detriment their profit will be created.

Diving the Solitary Islands

     Through the certification process, work at the Marine Center and volunteering I have found many opportunities for Scuba Diving in the Solitary Islands.  My diving opportunities range from going on collections for the aquarium, participating in SURG fish and coral surveys, recreational diving and we are about to begin a large scale mollusk collection for genetic analysis at the center which will include both collecting the organisms (for later genetic analysis) as well as photographing each individual.  Prior to arriving in Australia I was not certified and had no experience diving.  Although obtaining my certification was not required for work it was encouraged and definitely something that I wanted to give a try.  The PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) open water diver certification process was really straight forward, as I did the theory portion online prior to the practical portion which I completed at Jetty Dive in Coffs Harbour.  The practical portion includes a swim test, a day of pool skills and then 4 dives of applying the skills in the open water.  After completing my open water certification I decided to continue on to my advanced certification (which I am currently working on) which consists of more theory and skills including deep diving, underwater navigation, night diving and a range of optional skills.  The Solitary Islands has proved to be an amazing place to learn to dive and constantly continue to improve upon my skills. 

Open Water Certification Crew



The Solitary Islands are such phenomenal places to dive in terms of the amount of biodiversity seen because the warm tropical waters are brought down by the EAC (Eastern Australian Current) and mix with the cooler temperate waters so species from both tropical and cooler waters are present!




"Scooter" one of the resident rays





Wobbegong Shark

 Jetty Dive Photos!




The PADI website for information about becoming certified anywhere!

http://www.padi.com/scuba/default.aspx

An overview of the first half of the internship

With my internship nearing the halfway point and the Oregon State school term wrapping up it seems like a good time to reflect upon my internship thus far and offer some considerations for other students interested in similar internships for OSU credit or any working abroad experience at a research facility. 

An average day at work:  There is always a lot of variety in what I do on a daily basis at the Center but I have settled into a good work routine at this point.  I usually work a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 schedule with the occasional early morning or late night if we have lots to do or are headed out for a lengthy field day.  Upon arrival in the morning I spend the first few hours of every day tending to the aquaculture stocks, artemia and rotifer hatches and stocks and the aquarium fish.  I feed them and maintain the tanks which require testing the water quality, cleaning protein skimmers, water changes and whatever else comes up.  Following that I test and record the pH, temperatures and alkalinity of any experiments in the flow through lab and adjust them if need be.  Once my routine tasks for the day are accomplished I work on whatever research project I am working on at the time, this includes any variety of tasks including setting up experiments, collecting data from the experiments, field visits, collecting organisms, analyzing the data and composing scientific reports or going on fisheries trawls for bycatch surveys and research.  During lunch break (when we aren’t in the field) often times people will spend it swimming, surfing or just hanging out at the beach.   If I find that I have free time throughout the day I use that to work on developing an outreach program or reviewing existing publications on the research topics I am working on.  With so much to do there is never a slow day at work!

Transportation:  My main form of transportation is my bicycle.  I live in the “down town” area of Coffs Harbour so I am conveniently close to grocery stores, shops and whatever else I could need.  The Center is located a little ways north of the downtown area however so it is possible but not realistic to walk to work.  Co-workers are always more than willing to give me a lift if I need but I usually prefer to ride my bicycle anyway so I am on my own schedule and not depending on any one else to get around.  I usually bike ride the scenic way so it is about a 20 minute bike ride to work but there are some killer hills and it rains a lot but luckily there is a shower at work!  I see my bike ride as a great way to start and end the work day with some exercise and a pretty ride however Coffs Harbour is not an easy town to get around in due to the hills, weather and the unreliable and limited public transportation system so a bicycle is really the best option for anyone who is at least moderately fit, not afraid of the rain and does not want to purchase a car.  

Living Situation:  I rent a room in a 4 bedroom town house.  Finding a place was an enormous challenge but I was fortunate to have Georgia (my main contact at the center before I started) to help me with what seemed like the endless search for a place to live.  I ended up staying at the hostel longer than I anticipated while I looked for a good place but it was worth the wait!  I have realized that the living situation can really influence the experience you have and I am fortunate to live with young friendly roommates that like to explore! 

EIS for Recreational Fish Stocking

Below is the link for the environmental impact statement for the purposed marine fish stocking in New South Wales.  Not a light read, but its very interesting to contrast the management plans for stocking for recreational fishing in Australia versus the US.  The biggest challenge in starting up the stocking program is finding an appropriate brood stock with adequate genetic variation as the majority of brood stocks will only consist of 5 females of each species.

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/415764/Marine-Fish-Stocking-Vol-III-Online-Version.pdf

Tru Blu Prawn Farm and Palmer Island Mulloway

     The aquaculture department of the center is studying the convertibility of prawn hatcheries to fish hatcheries, especially looking at differences in Australian and Taiwanese designed hatcheries.  In response to the collapse of the prawn industry primarily due to low cost (but low quality) imports and lack of government support of the industry as a whole, researchers are hoping to find a different outlet of profitable production for the hatcheries.  There is potential for hatcheries to raise fish for the New South Wales government for recreational fish stocking or fish farming.  One interesting thing to note is that in Australia all the hatcheries are private regardless of whether they raise for recreational fish stocking or private production, hatcheries just have to undergo an accredidation process.   

     This past Thursday we went to 2 different farms with prawn hatchery facilities in Yamba.  Neither of the hatchery facilities on site are currently in operation however both are actively farming using purchased eggs instead of rearing their own.  Tru Blu continues to farm prawns while Palmer Island Mulloway uses their ponds for Mulloway (Jewfish). 

Tru Blu Farm

Tru Blu Hatchery Facilities (Australian Design)

The facilities have only ever been used for 3 runs of prawns, as the industry collapse occured shortly after the Tru Blu hatchery was built, most consider it to be the best hatchery in all of New South Wales

algae rearing tanks

More of the farming ponds

(Tru Blu has cut back to only farming half of their total ponds )



Some of the praws they sell in their shop





Product Ready to go to the market



Feeding the prawns

Palmer Island Mulloway Hatchery Facilities (Taiwanese Design)





Urchins

     Recently in Tasmania there has been an invasion of centro (long-spine) urchins, that have over grazed and  thus developed ocean barrens, unable to support much marine life.  The Eastern Australian Current has washed them into areas they have never before inhabited , probably due to increased strength of the current due to climate change factors.  Consequently this has nearly depleted rock lobster and abalone populations and poses a serious threat to shallow reef ecosystems as a whole.  The centro urchins are a keystone species in their native habitats, however have many detrimental effects when they invade other areas and there is great potential for them to continue spreading southward of Tasmania.  In order to not only better understand the grazing / feeding habits of these urchins but also how they respond to climate change conditions, Symon has developed an experiment in the ocean acidification lab that will examine these various factors and will be one of my main projects for the next 8 or so weeks.  We have approximately 140 baby urchins (varying in weight from .05 to .11 grams) each in a microhabitat in the larger flow through system.  The treatments consist of combinations of 3 different temperature treatments, 3 different acidification levels of the seawater, 2 different types of algae (encrusting and sargassum) and of the sargassum treatments some are allowed unlimited access to food and others have limited access to food.  We weighed and measured the urchins at the beginning of the experiment and will continue to do so weekly.  Wednesday begins week 2 so more to come as the experiment progresses.  

The babies

Flow through system

I think science programs should start offering a 'photographing scientific specimens' class!!!

   

Some photos of the urchins with the microscope camera, the scale is 1 mm and we use image J to set the scale to our the scale in the photos and measure the diameter and spine lengths of the urchins.

My very first kangaroo sighting!