Two high-seas areas in the Southern Indian Ocean have been added to the network of zones that are closed to deepwater trawling by a fishing industry group, making it the largest such enclosure in the world - IUCN and the Southern Indian Ocean Deepwater Fishers Association (SIODFA) announced today.
Two high-seas areas in the Southern Indian Ocean have been added to the network of zones that are closed to deepwater trawling by a fishing industry group, making it the largest such enclosure in the world - IUCN and the Southern Indian Ocean Deepwater Fishers Association (SIODFA) announced today.
From large- to small-scale, the country's already-struggling fishing industry has been derailed by a sudden lockdown, jeopardizing lives, livelihoods, and food security.
Subsea infrastructure of the oil and gas industry attracts commercial fish species as well as megafauna including sea lions, turtles, sharks and whales. Potential impacts of this attraction, whether positive or negative, are unknown. As part of a pilot study, we deployed acoustic telemetry equipment around offshore infrastructure to assess its effectiveness in detecting tagged marine animals and to gain insights into patterns of megafauna occurrence around these structures. Acoustic receivers were placed around four oil and gas platforms and on two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) on Australia's North West Shelf. Two whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) tagged in the World Heritage Ningaloo Reef Marine Park were detected at two platforms, North Rankin A and Pluto, located up to 340 km to the northeast. The shark at North Rankin A was detected infrequently and only 15 times over ∼6 weeks. The shark at Pluto was detected each day of the 24-day deployment, in total 4,894 times. Detections at Pluto platform were highest during the day, with peaks at dusk and dawn. Our study indicates that acoustic telemetry around platforms may be an effective method for understanding how marine megafauna utilise these structures. We recommend collaborating with industry to undertake receiver detection range testing to understand the effectiveness of the method. Furthermore, future studies should co-occur with tagging programs at sites like Ningaloo Reef and around the structures themselves to maximise the probability of detecting animals at these sites, thereby improving our understanding of how marine megafauna interact with these structures.
Coastal waters support a diverse range of marine life and contribute to the country's economy. Seawater quality has a significant impact on the ecological sustainability and biological productivity of coastal and marine ecosystems (DHEENAN et al., 2014; DHEENAN et al., 2016). However, population growth and industrialization in the coastal regions have steadily increased the anthropogenic pressure, resulting in seawater quality degradation along the coast. Anthropogenic activities such as land-based runoff, sewage discharge, industrial & aquaculture effluent and eutrophication in the coastal environment could impact the aquatic biota of the region. Consequently, coastal pollution has become a global issue that requires intervention through the application of monitoring programs and improvement of the seawater quality through a mitigation management system.
The combined effects of salinity and temperature influence the coastal water, and nutrient content is responsible for productivity, therefore information on these parameter's distribution in different coastal ecosystems is important (SATPATHY et al., 1986). Among the numerous inorganic elements required for life support in marine coastal ecosystems, nitrogen, phosphorous, and silicates are believed to be more significant than the others because they play a vital role in phytoplankton abundance, growth, and metabolism (Barath KUMAR et al., 2018). The distribution and behavior of nutrients in the coastal environment, particularly in the nearshore environment, varies greatly depending on local variables such as anthropogenic activities, fresh water influx, tidal variation, and biological activity such as phytoplankton intake and regeneration.
Although several studies on water quality have been conducted in other Indian coastal regions (RENJITH et al., 2015; JHA et al., 2015; YUVARAJ et al., 2018; SATHEESWARAN et al., 2019; RATMAN et al., 2022), there is relatively less work carried out on the seawater quality char
Industrial fleets from top fishing countries operating in the Indian Ocean and targeting export-market species such as tuna and squid are likely to disable monitoring systems to fish more than allowed and evade authorities, new research has found.
THE coral wonderlands of the Abrolhos Islands off the Mid West coast, and the fishing industries that rely on them, are at worse risk of damage from climate change than previously thought.
THE coral wonderlands of the Abrolhos Islands off the Mid West coast, and the fishing industries that rely on them, are at worse risk of damage from climate change than previously thought.
Threatened inshore dolphins and other species need protecting from proposed industrial expansion in Exmouth Gulf - an unprotected habitat adjoining the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Coast and Marine Park, warn experts from Flinders University's Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL).
Sand is everywhere and we hardly notice it. Yet it is also in great demand worldwide - and not just in the construction industry. It also plays an important role in the manufacturing of glass and semiconductors and in water treatment. Due to this intensive use in recent years, sand has become a scarce resource that is traded internationally. The effect of the depletion of this resource on coastal regions and the people that live there is the topic of a new research project at the Max PLANCK Institute for Social Anthropology (MPI). Titled "Sand - The Future of Coastal Cities in the Indian Ocean", the project is funded by a 1.3 million euro grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG).