Original story at ABC News
South Australian marine ecologist Tim Ward has been appointed to head a four-year research program into the Great Australian Bight.
The $20 million program announced in April is a joint initiative between the CSIRO, oil and gas producer BP and Marine Innovation Southern Australia.
Great Australian Bight Marine Park. Photo: Nachoman-au/WikiMedia Commons
BP is exploring for oil and gas in the area.
Associate professor Ward has been studying the Bight for the past 15 years and says he is looking forward to learning more about its unique ecosystem.
“Certainly it’s a place where a lot of sampling hasn’t taken place as yet, particularly in the deep water parts and so yes we’re expecting … particularly the seafloor sampling, to turn up new species,” he said.
“Certainly that was the case when we did that sort of sampling in the shallow water parts of the Great Australian Bight but now we’re going further offshore.
“We expect it to be at the very least, quite interesting.”
He says they have already surveyed some sections of the Bight’s sea floor.
“So at the end of it I think we’d like to have a well-documented account of … how special the Great Australian Bight is, how it works, so that can underpin future management of the system, because this is an applied project, it’s really about trying to understand how we manage the system into the future,” he said.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.