MLSSA

Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2001

No. 274

"Understanding, enjoying & caring for our oceans"


 

Next Meeting 21/2/01

The next meeting is the February General Meeting which will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street on Wednesday 21st February and it commences at 7.30pm.

We will have Karina Hall as our guest speaker on the topic of the Great Australian Cuttle. Members will have read the articles in our Newsletter and the 2000 Journal by Alex Gaut and this talk should provide an interesting followup. I hope members will be ready with many questions!


 

Contents

Coastcare Conference – Victor Harbor

Quoy And Gaimard

More Early Naturalists (1800 - 1900s)

Killer Shrimp Stalks The Waterways Of

San Francisco Aquarium Exhibit

Mantis Shrimps

Marine Wildlife News

Future Newsletters


 

2002 Calendar

There has been much discussion in both Committee and General Meetings about the production of a 2002 calendar.

The best proposition so far is a production of 2000 calendars. This would enable us to sell them for approximately $10 each.

This years run of 1000 is not yet all sold. We are asking every member to explore possible bulk outlets (eg Steve is phoning all dive shops in Adelaide) to enable us to come to a decision.

2000 calendars would mean either each member would have to sell 50 or more or we need to find sufficient other outlets to enable us to go ahead.

This is urgent so please try to let me know before the March General Meeting of outlets you have tried and what numbers they would take.

Phone me on (08)82704463 or by E-mail philip@cobweb.com.au

Philip Hall


 

Coastcare Conference – Victor Harbor

On December 1st and 2nd 2000, I attended a small conference hosted by the southern Coastcare co-ordinator, Linda-Marie Hall, as part of Coastcare week. Speakers presented projects and programs taking place on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula, as well as further afield. It was motivating to hear about projects aimed at tackling some of the coastal problems around the Peninsula and in the marine environment in our State.

The first speaker was Sheralee Cox, project officer for ReefWatch. Most of you will already know of the program or have participated in it and hence know Sheralee, so I will not summarise her talk. The next speaker was very interesting and spoke of a subject close to all our hearts. James Brook works for the Office of Coast & Marine within DEH, and participates on the Southern Fleurieu Coastal Reference Group. He spoke about Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), a very emotive topic and one that stirred much discussion. The definition of an MPA is very wishy-washy and is loosely described as an area within which particular activities are limited or excluded. West Island (near Victor Harbor), at 342 hectares is the smallest MPA in SA and the largest is the new Great Australian Bight Marine Park.

MPAs are set up for different reasons: to protect fish stock, to conserve biodiversity, to protect a unique ecosystem, to protect an endangered species and so on. In a report produced by Karen Edyvane last year, there were numerous priority areas around SA waters that were proposed as MPAs. In a map shown by James, a large portion of the coastline around the Fleurieu Peninsula was proposed to be ‘protected’. There was much discussion concerning the consultative process surrounding MPAs and what the different management strategies of each individual one might entail. And the word ‘protected’ was thought to be a little too direct, suggested alternatives included ‘Marine Heritage Areas’, ‘Marine Management Areas’ (this one was a favourite) and ‘Coastcare Areas’. There are 5 or 6 different titles for terrestrial equivalents, but none include the word ‘protected’, which instantly raises the hackles of anyone wanting to use that resource. So why was this word chosen? Well apparently it is used in other countries that have already led the way in MPAs and the Australian government thought it appropriate in an international context to also adopt this terminology. The setting up of more MPAs in SA waters is a continuous and complex process requiring much transparent consultation and discussion with communities.

The next speaker was a local, Natalie Gilbert, who works for the Granite Island Nature Park and is in charge of fairy penguin (Eudyptula minor) banding and monitoring on Granite and West Islands. The history of the monitoring goes back only to 1990 when Robert Brandle worked with NPWS to set up the first round of banding and monitoring. Since then the monitoring has been sporadic taking place again in 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999, only when funding is available. The threats to the penguins include tourism, vandalism, development and construction, commercial fishing, pollution (physical and chemical) and the pilchard die-offs. She spoke about the need for monitoring the populations and for the banding, which is part of a national program monitored by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme in Canberra. It is necessary to acquire a license for bird banding. All tags come from the scheme and all are returned there if a dead bird is found, so they can store a large database of information about each individual bird in the program, not just penguins. If you find a banded bird with a metal tag, send the tag to the address on the back (there will be a Canberra address if it is part of the scheme) and they will send you back the life history details of that bird.

Three sites are monitored: a high impact zone and medium impact zone, both on Granite Island, and a low impact zone on West Island. The population is monitored by chick survival rates, they are a good indicator of colony health. Chicks and burrows are monitored every fortnight during the breeding season. Burrows are chosen that are approximately arm’s length to be able to reach in and hold the occupants. Burrows are checked for the adult occupants to see if they have been banded and an egg count is done. Chicks are monitored from birth: number of chicks, condition and the number fledging from each burrow. Fledging is a critical time in a young penguin’s life. During the moult from down to adult plumage, the chick is seriously fat at approximately 2kg, compared to the normal adult weight of 1-1.5 kg, this makes them sluggish and easy prey for both predators and humans. If they lose too much weight during this period, due to stress, they will not survive once they leave the burrow for good.

The results obtained so far from the few years of data appear to show that although the high impact zone is favoured for nesting, less chicks fledge from this area than from the medium impact zone. There is no explanation for this trend as yet.

A Draft Management Plan for fairy penguins is currently being drawn up and was described as ‘everything you need to know about protecting and monitoring penguins’. Another current project jointly funded by National Parks and other bodies, is an upgrade of the high impact zone area near the kiosk, in favour of the penguins. There is a major amount of earthworks currently in process, revegetation and raised boardwalks will be built to control human access and make it safer for the penguins to access their burrows on their return from feeding at sea, at night. The raised boardwalks will also prevent erosion from human feet. It is hoped that these renovations will be complete by June 2001.

The last speaker for the first day was Dr Liz Reid of the Whale Centre. When the Whale Centre was taken over by the Council about 6 months ago, Dr Reid was hired to manage the facility. It is also staffed by tourism trainees and volunteers. Whale watching is a big business globally, about 70 countries now have some form of whale watching activity. In Australia the proximity of the Southern Right Whale to the coastline promotes land-based whale watching, a safe form of ecotourism for the whales and the humans, and has the potential for best practice tourism models. Whale watching is an excellent way to start to educate the public about marine and coastal issues. For example, unfortunately the impact of land-based whale watching is evident along the coastline around the Victor Harbor area where large sand dunes are being eroded by tourists trying to find a high vantage point. Boardwalks are present in some popular spots to control access, but it does not prevent some from trying to get a better view. During this last season, Dr Reid took a camera to some of these spots and instead of photographing the whales, started to photograph the people on the dunes! Some, realising they were doing the wrong thing, climbed down when they noticed the camera, but nevertheless, all the pictures are going up on a board titled "Hall of Shame". Human-created erosion is also evident at the Head of the Bight where people have made their own paths to the best viewing spots. The Centre also has a ‘blackout’ policy so that if whales are present between Port Elliot and Goolwa, they do not promote their presence via media, or the 1900 phone line, in an effort to protect the dunes.

The role of the Whale Centre is interpretive as well as bringing people to the town during winter, when it would otherwise be dead. Dr Reid strongly believes that if they promote an activity, in this case land-based whale watching, they should also promote safety, awareness and responsibility surrounding that activity. Towards this end an Environmental Code for Whale Watchers has been drawn up, as well as interpretive signs and a Whale Information booklet.

After camping the night in a lovely caravan park, I was fired up and ready for the next round of information. The morning consisted largely of two key local speakers: Graham Webster, Project Officer for the Inman River Catchment Group and Ron Taylor, founder, co-ordinator and botanist extraordinaire for the Friends of Newland Head Conservation Park.

The Victor Harbor area hosts two catchments: for the Inman and Hindmarsh Rivers. On the southern Fleurieu Peninsula there are about 33 catchments of varying sizes. At 19.5 km2 the Inman catchment is one of the largest. To be effective in catchment care it is ideal to start at the top and work down, but this is not always possible. Graham echoed something we all feel, that a lot of ‘common sense’ is required when working with the environment, using natural models rather than imposing our own sense of what should work.

The Inman and Hindmarsh catchments were formed about 100 million years ago and are situated on Kanmantoo schists, which are naturally saline causing what humans perceive as water quality ‘problems’. The back of the Hindmarsh catchment, known as the Hindmarsh tiers, elevated above the lower river area, is situated on limestone, which gives ‘good’ water quality in the aquifers and hence there is a lot of irrigation in this area. Water and soil qualities dictate plant types, which in turn dictate animal and bird species, and hence entire ecosystems are based on water and soil types. There are many different microclimates and ecologies just in the small region covered by these two catchment areas.

Rainfall in the two catchments varies in parts from ~500 mm in Victor Harbor to ~900 mm in higher altitudes. Rainfall in a catchment can apparently be an indicator for the marine environment as it washes down alluvial sediments into the sea, which are washed and then deposited on the beaches as sand. There was much discussion regarding ‘effective’ rainfall recharging aquifers, because in naturally saline areas recharge is not necessarily a good thing for landholders as it brings the salinity to the surface. However, without effective recharge swamps die out and salinity increases. The aquifers in the Hindmarsh tiers area have dropped by 10m in the last 25 years, mainly due to irrigation and in part to light rainfall in the last decade. There is very little data or monitoring of the aquifers or irrigation usage in the southern Fleurieu area, currently or historically. There has been a vast amount of vegetation clearance on the Peninsula. In the 1920s and 30s timber was taken from the Fleurieu Peninsula to the Broken Hill mines, then after this period land could only be leased if the landholder cleared it! Fortunately land usage surveys indicate that the third highest land use in the Inman and Hindmarsh catchments is for native vegetation (9% & 11%). The two highest land uses in the area for grazing (55% & 53%) and dairy (26% & 22%), with other use including pastures, rural living, plantation forest, recreational, horses, viticulture, urban, mine/quarry, dams, aquaculture, orchards, national parks and education.

Originally the Inman and Hindmarsh were not rivers at all but a series of swamps at different levels in the catchments. Erosion from stock caused watercourses to form from the bottom up and as they all joined, the rivers were formed. So the alluvial sediments mentioned earlier have not always washed into the marine environment in Encounter Bay, and the sediments are now smothering seagrass beds and degrading reef environments.

Graham is now involved in a project that has identified 45 priority sites in the area that have major problems. NHT funding has been provided to continue this project by ‘fixing’ each area and problem, creating wildlife corridors, fencing to control stock access, erosion prevention and so on.

The last but probably the most enthusiastic speaker was Ron Taylor of the Friends of Newland Head Conservation Park (CP). Ron has been involved with the Friends group for many years and now has 15 projects on the go involving the local coastal environment. Although the group was formed to work within the park, they kept remarking how most of the problems within the park came from outside the boundaries. The symptoms were inside the park but the causes were outside, so in 1984 the Friends group ‘jumped the fence’. Conservation on private land means politics and economics and initially Ron was rebuffed by every landholder. He talked about the new and ridiculous boundaries that were created by surveyors trying to have an easy day, so straight lines were drawn across the cliff lines, so that on some properties people appeared to own parts of the ocean! This also meant that landholders could tell walkers on the Heysen Trail to get off their land, due to these new boundaries. The Heysen Trail has since been altered so that it goes through an area that floods each winter and has absolutely no view at all.

The vegetation along the cliffline north of Newland Head is not primary coastal vegetation, it is inland vegetation that was once inland until the sea rose and made it coastal by default. However, it is situated so high above the splash and spray zones that the vegetation is unaffected by salinity. The vegetation is virtually holding the cliffs together. The Kanmantoo Schists are very unstable and are only held together by plant roots and the small amount of soil that they stabilise. There are about 286 plant species, only 39 (15%) of which are introduced (this is on a par with National Parks), 4 are endangered, 6 are vulnerable and others are uncommon or rare or their status is unknown. New species to the area are found every year (thanks to Ron) and some species have been discovered that are also only found in the Flinders Ranges! Some he has found recently were listed as locally extinct.

Degradation of the cliffline is due largely to stock grazing and because sheep form paths of their own, the pathways confuse humans who then walk all over the place and also contribute to erosion. Initially wind blows out a basin and then rain, most of which does not soak in to the sand, creates rivulets that eventually form large eroded basins and channels. Ron estimated that in the area he has chosen to work on, approximately 500,000 litres of water were running over the cliff each year and washing away topsoil.

When revegetating the group uses tree guards to protect against the harsh wind, kangaroos and rabbits. However, the down side to using guards is that the wind creates vortices that erode away the area around the seedling, so to stabilise what little sand is there, the group planted cereal oats between tree guards – the philosophy says that it doesn’t matter what grows initially as long as it stabilises the top soil and keeps things in place until the seedlings are old enough to keep things in place, then worry about what shouldn’t be there later. The group has used 85 species of local plants so far including trees, shrubs, wildflowers and native grasses.

Ron and the Friends group have been so persistent and successful in their work outside Newland Head CP that the government are now considering purchasing the entire cliffline as an addition to the CP.

In the afternoon we visited a dune area that is slowly being rehabilitated by the Victor Harbor Coastcare group. They have are revegetating as well as controlling access by fencing and next year will build boardwalks with interpretive signs too. It is success stories like this that inspire and motivate me to continue to try to protect our precious marine environment. I hope it inspires you too, to know that there are so many wonderful people fighting to help the marine and coastal environment in many different ways.

Alex Gaut


 

Quoy And Gaimard

In our January 1984 Newsletter (No.80) I wrote an article titled "Two Early Naturalists". It was about Quoy and Gaimard. These two French doctors had doubled as ship surgeons and naturalists in the early 1800s. In 1818 they visited Australia on a scientific expedition on board L’Uranie under the command of Louis Freycinet. The voyage apparently ran from 1816 - 1820 during which WA’s Shark Bay was surveyed. Lots of marine specimens were observed and collected during the voyage but all was lost when the ship was wrecked at the Falkland Islands in 1820. In 1826 Quoy and Gaimard returned to Australia on board L’Astrolabe commanded by Count Dumont d’Urville. The two collected another large collection of specimens which they presented to the Natural History Museum of Paris. They were responsible for describing many marine species from Australian waters including fish, ascidians, seajellies and the Northern Blue-ringed Octopus, Hapalochlaena lunulata. They also named the swimming anemone, Phlyctenactis tuberculosa. The reason why I am recalling all of this is that I recently discovered that the six-spined leatherjacket seems to have been renamed and credited to Quoy and Gaimard. "The Marine and Freshwater Fishes of South Australia" had named this leatherjacket Navodon multiradiatus, having been named Monocanthus multiradiatus by Guenther in 1870 (Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. 8). The scientific name for the species according to "Sea Fishes of Southern Australia" is now Meuschenia freycineti, apparently in honour of the Commander of L’Uranie. Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet had sailed with Nicolas Baudin in 1800-4. The Freycinet Peninsula, Freycinet National Park and Mount Freycinet in Tasmania are all named after him.


 

More Early Naturalists (1800 - 1900s)

F.Peron

As mentioned above, Freycinet had sailed with Baudin in 1800-4. Another French scientist and explorer had sailed with Baudin at the same time. It was Francois Peron (1775-1810). Peron collected many biological specimens during the voyage and classified them later on. He wrote one volume on the history of the voyage (Voy. Austr. 1807?) before he died in 1810. Freycinet completed Peron’s work prior to his own death in 1842. It seems that it was Francois Peron who first described the Seven-gilled Shark in 1807 (Voy. Austr. 1807 - his volume?). He was also possibly responsible (in part) for describing the Tiger Shark and Crocodilian Longtom. The longtom was described in 1821 and the shark in 1822 (J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 2) by a Peron & Le Sueur (after Peron’s death).

F. von Mueller

In 1872 a flounder was named Pseudorhombus muelleri by CB Klunzinger (Arch. Naturg. (Wiegmann) 38). Klunzinger may have named the flounder after Baron Ferdinand von Mueller who was Victoria’s first Colonial Botanist. The flounder is now known as Mueller’s Flounder, Arnoglossus muelleri. The eelgrass Zostera may also have been named after Mueller since it is named Zostera muelleri. Mueller, along with Henle, may have described the Blue Pointer Shark in 1839 (Plagiost).

CB Klunzinger

Apart from naming Mueller’s Flounder, CB Klunzinger apparently also named the Common Bullseye Liopempheris multiradiata (Pempheris multiradiatus at the time) in 1879 (Sitzb. Akad. Wiss. Wien.). In 1911 AR McCulloch then named the Rough Bullseye Pempheris klunzingeri (Zool. Res. Endeavour 1). Klunzinger also named many other fish species such as the Orange Cardinalfish (1879), Southern Cardinalfish (1872), Rock Ling and Pike-headed Hardyhead (both in 1872).

AR McCulloch

Apart from naming the Rough Bullseye, AR McCulloch was also responsible for describing two other bullseye species in 1911. They were the Black-tipped Bullseye, Pempheris affinis, and the Slender Bullseye, Parapriacanthus elongatus (Pempheris elongatus at the time). McCulloch also described many other species of fish, including sharks and rays, in the early 1900s. In between 1915 and 1918 he and Waite described many fish species together.

Castlenau

During the 1870s Castlenau described many fish species. One of these bears (his?) name. It is the Castlenau’s Wrasse, Dotalabrus aurantiacus, otherwise known as the Pretty Polly (Proc. Zool. Acclim. Soc. Vic.1).

Cuvier & Valenciennes

Cuvier and Valenciennes both described many fish species in the 1820s & 30s, individually and together. "The Sea Fishes of Southern Australia" suggests that Cuvier alone was responsible for describing the Blue-spotted Goatfish, Upeneichthys vlamingii, in 1829. The Blue-spotted Goatfish is also known as the Red Mullet and "The Marine & Freshwater Fishes of South Australia" says that both Cuvier and Valenciennes described the Red Mullet in 1829 (Hist. Nat. Poiss. 3). Scientific names are continually being reviewed and changed. Cuvier and Valenciennes called the Red Mullet/Blue-spotted Goatfish Upeneus porosus. This was later changed by ichthyologists to Upeneichthys porosus and then later changed to Upeneichthys vlamingii.

Willem de Vlamingh

I have been wondering whether this latest species name for the Red Mullet refers to the Dutch navigator Willem de Vlamingh who explored the coast of Western Australia in 1697. It was Vlamingh who discovered the existence of black swans on what is now known as the Swan River.
Steve Reynolds


 

http://www.cnn.com/2001/NATURE/01/05/killer.shrimp.ap/index.html
Killer Shrimp Stalks The Waterways Of San Francisco Aquarium Exhibit
January 5, 2001 Web posted at: 8:34 AM EST (1334 GMT) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

The SplashZone, a normally tranquil children’s section at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, has become the scene of underwater carnage at the claws of a killer shrimp. Prized sea snails, barnacles and hermit crabs have been reduced to piles of broken shells by the lightning-quick claws of a single mantis shrimp-a voracious, salt-water scourge that for months has eluded captors and reduced a coral reef exhibit to a killing field. Two of the nonnative shrimp invaded the 1,300-gallon tank in April, probably after burrowing into a shipment of display rocks shipped from Florida. A nimble worker snared one shrimp in November with a pair of long tongs. His 4-inch-long accomplice is still on the loose. "When you’re working near the exhibit you can hear the pop when he’s going after the barnacles," said senior aquarist David Cripe. The shrimp-commonly called "thumb-splitters" for the ability to do just that-is too small to kill fish. But the critter is taking out small bottom-dwellers by the dozen in the tank. Catching the loose shrimp has proven difficult. Fish that eat the shrimp could be introduced to the display to reduce the tiny terror to a food-chain casualty. But the natural foes would also eat the hermit crabs and snails that are part of the exhibit. "The solutions become problems," Cripe said. So far the aquarium has shied away from using box traps, specially designed to capture mantis shrimp. "They’re worried about them-that they’ll kill their fish," says Marc Desatnik, owner of North Coast Marines in Solon, Ohio. For now however, woe to any SplashZone crustacean smaller than the mantis shrimp. Some have specialized smashing claws to bludgeon small crabs and whack barnacles on the back until they loosen their grip on a rock. "They’re real smart," said Aquarium Concepts store manager Marcos Figueroa, who is careful not to try to grab the shrimp by hand "and they’ll leave a mark."


Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

(Taken from Wet stuff - which is compiled by the MCCN (SA) for research and non-commercial use as a free community service from a range of web sources.)


 

Mantis Shrimps

In our January 1992 Newsletter (No.174) I wrote about a television program featuring mantis shrimps. The TV documentary on the ABC was called "Wildscreen". It was narrated by David Attenborough and special camera techniques were used to capture the extraordinary punching power of the mantis shrimp which is said to strike with the force of a .22 calibre bullet. At the end of my article I asked the question "Do these creatures occur in SA?" The September 2000 issue of Dive Log Australia (No.146) has now answered my question. A feature article called "Southern water species of the month" gave details of mantis shrimps. It mentioned the finding of one under the Tumby Bay pier (jetty). The scientific name given in the article was Squilla laevis whereas The Advertiser/Sunday Mail sticker album "Our amazing Undersea World" gives Alima laevis. Here is a list of these and other references:-

Dive Log Australia, September 2000, No.146, "Southern water species of the month" (by Kenn Hoppen?), page 57.

The Advertiser/Sunday Mail sticker album "Our amazing Undersea World", page 11.

"The Reader’s Digest Book of the Great Barrier Reef", pages 200/1 & 211.

"Australian Seashores", 1987, page 238.

"Mantis Shrimps" by Steve Reynolds, MLSSA Newsletter, January 1992, No.174.

Steve Reynolds


 

MARINE WILDLIFE NEWS

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/homepage.htm

Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the flora and fauna of the NE Atlantic Ocean.

14 December 2000

Overnight gales combined with high tides wash thousand of tonnes of shingle and other sediment on to the undercliff walk from Brighton Marina, Sussex, to Rottingdean completely blocking this route from the west.

7 December 2000

A cliff fall near Swanage, Dorset, sent thousand of tonnes of the waterlogged soft clay and sand soil crashing into the sea. The fall occurred after heavy rain.

7 December 2000

A pod of four Killer Whales, Orcinus orca, were seen from the shore hunting seals at Maywick, Shetland. Killer Whales include seals in their diet where they get the opportunity, but around Britain it is only in the Shetlands do the ordinary public (as distinct from fishermen and other seafarers) get the opportunity to see this.


 

Future Newsletters

If you have read to this point then I can assume you are very interested in receiving regular Newsletters.

Hardcopy Newsletter postage costs the Society some $200.00 per annum.

The following suggestions have been made to reduce this:

  1. Could you pick up your Newsletter at a General meeting? (If the meeting venue is to be different then a hard copy would be sent.)

  2. Could you download a copy from our Webpage? (It is usually posted on the site before the hard copy is sent.)

  3. Could I e-mail a text only copy directly to you? (This depends on compatible software.)

  4. Have you an alternative suggestion?

Your thoughts are very welcome on this topic. Please use the suggested options for contacting me under "2002 Calendars" at the start of this Newsletter.
Philip Hall


 

 

 

To Home Page