2 October 2007 - The Australian
Government has approved more than $700,000
funding for a range of marine mammal projects
over the next year.
The Assistant Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources, John Cobb, said that
proper management and conservation of marine
mammals was critical to their survival.
Eleven projects with total funding of $790,000
will be carried out through the Australian
Centre for Applied Marine Mammal Science,
located at the Australian Antarctic Division
in Hobart and headed by Dr Nick Gales.
Projects include:
testing the feasibility of using unmanned
aerial vehicles for surveys of marine mammals;
population status of West Australian humpbacks
and pygmy blue whales;
impact of noise on whales;
improving information on dugong movement
and habitat through innovative tracking
technology;
monitoring fur seal pup production and population.
Projects are assessed by a scientific committee
before undergoing evaluation by a broader
advisory committee which includes Commonwealth
and state governments, non-government organisations,
fisheries bodies, indigenous groups and
industry.
The Marine Mammal Centre was established
in 2006 with funding of $2.5 million over
four years, from the Commonwealth Environment
Research Facility (CERF), to focus research
on whales, seals, sea lions, dolphins and
dugongs.
Mr Cobb said that a dedicated centre was
an excellent way to draw together specialists
from around the country whose expertise
is directed towards good management and
conservation practices for our marine mammals.
Tom Chesson (Minister's Office)
Patti Lucas (Australian Antarctic Division)
Summary of funding
1. Improving information on dugong movements
and habitat use using innovative tracking
technology - $67,647.00
To enhance understanding of dugong large-scale
movements and sub-tidal habitat use by assessing
the potential of the innovative Fastloc
GPS technology to mitigate the sampling
biases inherent in tracking dugongs using
GPS tags, which provide few location fixes
from animals in habitats deeper than ~3m
and/or moving quickly. The new generation
Fastloc technology should increase the chances
of recording an animal's location irrespective
of its speed and location. The resultant
improved understanding of the large-scale
movements and sub-tidal habitat use of dugongs
will inform policy for managing important
dugong habitats.
2. Australian fur seal pup production and
population trends - $25,900.00
The aim is to estimate Australian fur seal
pup numbers at all colonies following the
2007/08 pupping period. This will repeat
the first thorough census of pup numbers
at all breeding sites conducted in 2002/03.
Current data on population sizes and trends
are important for understanding and conservation
of marine mammals. Australian fur seals
are endemic to Bass Strait, breed at 10
sites and are the marine mammal that reportedly
interacts most frequently with fisheries
in Australia. The 23,000 pups estimated
in 2002/03 represented a near-doubling of
numbers since the 1970s, when seals became
protected species. Is this trend continuing?
3. New Computerised Fluke Matching System
for Humpback Whales – $53,347.00
This project will result in a new computer-based
photo-recognition matching system that efficiently
identifies individuals and finds resights
in photo-identification catalogues of humpback
whales. This project builds on previously
successful research using a unique multifaceted
computer-based recognition system to overcome
the overwhelming problems of manually matching
photographs of humpback whale flukes in
large catalogues. The new system provides
a rapid and improved method of obtaining
mark-recapture data (RP4a) for abundance
estimates and trends (RP1a), independent
movements and levels of interchange among
populations of humpback whales (RP1c) in
Australia and the South Pacific for improved
management and conservation outcomes.
4. Population status of Western Australian
humpback whales, 2008 - $177,1000.00
The project will complement a major existing
data set from surveys undertaken in 1999
and 2005 on northward migrating humpback
whales from one of seven currently recognised
southern hemisphere breeding stocks (Breeding
Stock D). As in 2005, there will be two
components (i) an aerial survey over two
months, covering the peak migration period
past Shark Bay, WA, where regular aerial
surveys provided relative abundance and
trend information over 1982-1994; (ii) a
land-based survey over a shorter period,
to 'ground-truth' the aerial survey. The
result should be an estimated current absolute
abundance for this Breeding Stock, together
with a comparison with 2005 and 1999 results,
for use in comprehensive assessments of
southern hemisphere whale stocks, essential
for their conservation and rational management.
5. Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for surveys
of marine mammals in Australia: test of
concept - $86,912.00
The conservation and management of many
marine mammal populations relies on accurate
and precise estimates of their abundance
and distribution using aerial surveys. We
aim to test whether Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs) can replace manned aircraft to (1)
reduce costs, (2) reduced human risk, (3)
deliver superior data on detection, location,
abundance and identification of marine mammal
species. This project aims to (1) develop
and test technology and techniques for UAV
surveys and (2) conduct and compare traditional
manned and UAV surveys of dugongs and humpback
whales to test the viability of UAV surveys.
6. Humpback whales and the impact of noise:
Controlled Exposure Experiments - $81,180.00
Previous Humpback Whale Acoustic Research
Collaboration (HARC) experiments successfully
developed a methodology for performing Controlled
Exposure Experiments (CEEs) and measuring
the behaviours of humpbacks at multiple
resolutions, in a well defined study area.
This project will concentrate on CEEs and
(1) document the range of behavioural reactions
observed by the whales, (2) measure the
received acoustic levels that elicit reactions,
and (3) place the range of reactions observed
into the context of normal behaviours for
these whales at this site. This project
will improve our knowledge of the effects
of anthropogenic noise on humpback whale
behaviour and acoustic communication.
7. Population size and distribution of
Western Australian pygmy blue whales - $44,000.00
This project will investigate the movement
patterns and population size of the pygmy
blue whales that aggregate off south-western
Australia each autumn. Currently it is not
known if these animals represent a sub-population
or if they range-widely and form part of
a larger population with linkage to other
known aggregations in Australian waters.
We will deploy small, biologically inert,
implantable satellite-tags to investigate
the movements of these whales and, through
supplement existing data, employ genetic
tagging and photo-identification data to
estimate population size and the recurrence
of the same individuals between years.
8. Population structure and sub-structure
of Australian humpback whales - $42,000.00
Through the genetic analysis of biopsy
samples collected in north-western and south-eastern
Australia this project aims to reveal:
1) the extent of exchange of individuals
between western Australian, eastern Australian
and potential linkages to adjacent Pacific
populations;
2) whether whales sampled in migratory
corridors along the Australian coast belong
to one or more breeding populations;
3) whether temporal or spatial substructure
exists within the west Australian breeding
population;
The data provided by this research will
help to understand the impact of past whaling
activity and also inform any assessment
of possible impacts from the proposed lethal-take
of humpback whales by the Japanese JARPA
II whaling program.
9. Methods for distinguishing foraging
ecotypes within and among Australian sea
lion subpopulations: their importance to
defining genetic population structure and
assisting spatial management of fisheries
- $84,564.00
This project aims to develop and validate
stable isotope methods to distinguish different
foraging ecotypes (inshore and offshore)
among Australian sea lion (ASL) adult females
and their dependent pups, and use pup sampling
to screen the foraging ecotype profiles
of ASL subpopulations. Molecular genetic
analysis of the same pups will then be used
to assess the importance of geographic distance
and foraging ecotype in defining genetic
population structure. These advances will
be used to improve subpopulation based foraging
models to assist spatial management of fisheries,
improve our understanding of genetic population
structure, and develop appropriate population
surveys for the species.
10. Developing population monitoring protocols
to determine the abundance of Australian
sea lions at key subpopulations in South
Australia - $59,778.00
Traditional methods of censusing Australian
sea lion populations have used visual counts
of pups during the peak of the protracted
pupping season to provide a point estimate
that can significantly underestimated pup
production. As a consequence, quality time-series
data on the status of populations are essentially
absent. This proposal aims to role out a
population survey strategy at key colonies
in South Australia. These surveys will enable
accurate estimation of pup production with
confidence limits, and methods will be tailored
for different sized populations. Effective
management and recovery of Australian sea
lion populations will need to be underpinned
by an ability to detect changes in the status
of populations over the shortest possible
time-periods. This proposal builds upon
a project funded by NHT/ACAMMS in 2006/07
to develop new population monitoring methods
for the threatened Australian sea lion.
11. Population-level dietary genotyping:
a re-evaluation of Australian fur seal diet
by pyrosequencing of prey DNA in faeces
- $62,500.00
Accurate knowledge of diet is essential
for understanding marine mammal behaviour,
ecosystem dynamics and potential impacts
of fisheries. Traditional diet determination,
through analysis of prey hard parts in faeces,
is biased by differential prey recovery.
Recent research shows this problem can be
overcome through DNA-based faecal analysis.
We will carry out a comprehensive analysis
of prey DNA sequences in faeces collected
from the Australian fur seal, Arctocephalus
pusillus doriferus, using recently developed
pyrosequencing technology. This novel approach
of population-level dietary genotyping will
provide a new perspective on diet of a key
marine predator in Australian waters and
provide a template for future diet studies
on other pinnipeds, whales and dolphins.
