Ningaloo - integrating science into management
Initial findings from extensive research at Ningaloo Marine Park are hitting the desk thick and fast.
The latest data on coral health, coral species, fish, molluscs, sponges, crayfish, the sea floor, recreational use, the impact of people and developments, future scenarios and other topics went on display at the third Ningaloo research symposium in Exmouth in late May.
The research is funded by the Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI), the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) WA, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship’s Ningaloo Collaboration Cluster.
“We’re at the stage where we’re able to use this information for the future management of Ningaloo,” WAMSI’s Node 3 Science Coordinator for the DEC, Dr Kelly Waples, said.
Inventories of the biodiversity in Ningaloo Marine Park’s deep waters provided details of what lay beneath the waves while oceanographers’ assessments of the patterns of how water circulated through and around the reef, and its influence on marine life, incorporating the information on climate change, was also at hand, she said.
“This information can be used by marine park planners, tourism planners, field managers, scientists and fisheries managers,” she told 80 delegates at the symposium Ningaloo into the future: integrating science into management.
The effects of predation and human impacts on coastal and marine species were also being catalogued and ‘indicator’ species – those that will provide a reference to the ‘health’ of the marine park – had been identified. Information is being described and stored to make it accessible to scientists and others, now and into the future she said.
“We’re in the process of providing a vast amount of science that’s relevant to the social, ecological and biological factors affecting this marine area,” she said.
“This knowledge will be recognised and taken up by management agencies – translating science into decision-making.
"Ningaloo Marine Park is a healthy marine park and there are no immediate concerns, but it’s equally important to have good science behind the marine park management, so that we are prepared for the challenges that may lay ahead, like climate change.”
Conference organisers were (pictured from left) Dr Kelly Waples, Wendy Steele and Edwina Hollander from CSIRO and Irene Abraham from Murdoch University.