Marine park earmarked for holiday spots

The popular coastal holiday spots between Dunsborough and Augusta may be included in a marine park.

Purple clavelina

      Researchers from Murdoch are helping the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) map the marine environment in the area between Geographe Bay in the north and Flinders Bay near Augusta in the south.
      The area already has been identified as a Proposed Marine Conservation Reserve as a first step in the process towards making it a marine park.
      Researchers from Murdoch were among a party of marine specialists in different fields from WA universities who carried out field research in February this year. Such research is an essential early stage in the marine park process.
      "Little is known about the marine habitats in the area," said CALM marine conservation officer Kevin Bancroft.
      CALM had carried out video inspections of the ocean floor at 360 sites along the coast but it needed more information about what was on the video. So a team of marine experts with different specialties took a 10-day boat trip in the area to dive, inspect and take samples at typical environments that had been videotaped previously.
      Mr Bancroft said without a marine reservation system there would be no planning, monitoring or managing.
      "Once marine reserves are established, government de-partments have to work together, set benchmarks and review the areas every 10 years. That way you build a picture of human activity in the area. It helps us protect the areas."
      Murdoch researchers Dr John Huisman and Dr Laura Stocker were on board the research vessel.
      Dr Huisman is Australia's "seaweed man". His job was to find out the types and amount of seaweed and other vegetation growing in the area.
      In the course of his investigation he managed to make a couple of exceptional discoveries -- one a possible new species of seaweed, the other a unique propagation method in kelp.
      Dr Huisman is not getting over-excited about his new species, as he needs to identify it in all of its life-cycle stages.
      "I can't say I've found a new species, yet. It would be like saying you've found a new eucalypt species without having seen the flower," he said.
      He can, however, say that he has seen an unusual method of propagation in kelp at Hamlyn Bay. It appears that the weed produces hold-fasts at the edges of its branches that re-attach to the rock and, when the branch breaks in between, two plants result.
      In the different world of ascidians (simple, rock-holding animals like sea squirts) about which Dr Laura Stocker is one of Australia's most knowledgeable scientists, finding a new species is a little more common.
      She says she is confident of having found "some that are new to science."
      Having taken about 120 specimens, she is in the process of dissecting and identifying them.
      Ascidians have a short, free-swimming, tadpole-like stage of their lives before attaching themselves to rocks where they reproduce as adults.
      They come in a variety of fabulous colours from bright orange to pale blue to purple and yellow-striped.
      "Aesthetically they have an impact for divers and for natural historians," said Dr Stocker.
      They enjoy cryptic and low light environments such as caves, archways, overhangs and drop-offs, and can cover 20 per cent of the rock surface in areas like the State's South-West.
      They are ecologically prominent in the marine system, providing food for sea urchins, starfish and fish like leather jackets, snapper, trigger fish and morwong.
      According to Dr Stocker the marine environment in the capes region appeared to have borne the impact from human activity.
      "There is some anchor damage and some impact from recreational abalone and crayfishing," she said.

Rock vegetation on the capes	'New' method of propagation: hold-fast on tips of kelp at Hamlyn Bay
Orange podoclavella

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