Newsletter

The next meeting is the March General Meeting which will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street, Adelaide on Wednesday 21^st March commencing at 7.30pm.

We will have Hemant Chaudhary as our guest speaker on the topic of Wetlands.

As an introduction to this topic you will find a thought provoking article by Rob Walsh later in this Newsletter.

Divemaster Training

Photo Index To Be Extended To The General Public

MARINE WILDLIFE NEWS

South Australian Wetlands

Visit by Voronica Whitney-Robinson

Well, it is that time of the year again. Subscriptions become due on the 1^st April. The Treasurer has no objection to people paying slightly early at the March meeting. Existing members will find a separate simplified membership form in this Newsletter. It is also to be found on the MLSSA webpage and in back issues of our Newsletter.

It would be appreciated if payments could be finalised by the end of April to avoid the necessity/embarrassment of reminder notices.

The Treasurer would also like to close the books on this years calendar. Please remit payments asap and return any unsold calendars to a Committee Member if you feel there is no chance of any further sales. As we are in March prices can be substantially reduced! You can negotiate.

Once I had completed my **Diver (Advanced Diver Level) I decided to become a ***Diver (Divemaster). This comprised of completing a Rescue Diver course, a Coxswains course, 55 dives at various depths (the last 5 at 40 metres), one year as a **Diver & being recommended by the club Diving Officer to do the theory and practical tests.

Over the next 17 months I managed to complete and pass the Coxswains & Rescue Diver courses and log the obligatory 55 dives, although on several occasions trying to get 30 metre plus dives proved a bit of a problem. I remember on at least one occasion digging a hole in the sand and sticking my depth gauge in it just to get the required depth.

This all completed and getting the recommendation from the Diving Officer it was off to do the first of the practical tests (pre requisites). Being mid August and still officially summer the weather was supposed to be good but we’d had storms all week and the sea was like pea soup and cold (9º C).

The first of the practical tests was relatively easy. It was to swim 200m in 8 mins dive to 3m to recover a body and support it for 2 mins. This was OK if you were a polar bear, 15 mins in the cold sea does funny things to my body especially when you have to get into a wetsuit straight after.

Next it was finning 1000m in wet suit, ABLJ and weight belt then finning back 500m fully kitted, a bit tiring but for a fit 38 year old no problems.

Next came the snorkelling and breath holding tests. The first of these was to snorkel dive down a shot line to a diver at 6 metres and stay there for 20 seconds. It might sound easy but you have to do this twice with only a 20-second break between dives. Added to this is the fact you’re wearing a wetsuit, ABLJ, weight belt and the visibility is less than a metre, quite daunting.

This completed and with no rest it was straight into 3 snorkel dives to 10 metres with a surface break just long enough to catch your breath and go again. This proved to be quite difficult even though I’d practiced many times. The real problem was the lack of visibility and the depth.

There was no shot line to dive down this time so they weren’t accurate with their depth. I think they had us diving to about 15m, it was certainly a lot more than the recommended 10m. Coupled with very poor visibility, about half a metre, this made things really difficult.

I remember on my last dive struggling to find the bottom that you couldn’t see until you’d banged into it. Then you had to find a something to prove you had reached the bottom like a stone or a piece of seaweed. By this time I was struggling for air so I rushed back to the surface which I couldn’t see, I really didn’t know which way was up from down. With my lungs bursting for air and survival taking over I wasn’t able to equalise my ears properly, so when I reached the surface I thought I’d ruptured my eardrums. I hadn’t but they were very sore for quite a few hours after.

Fortunately there was only a few easy tests left to do like the 20-10-20 breath holding where you ducked under water for 20 secs came up for 10 secs and ducked under for another 20 secs, so I managed to get through the day and pass the preliminary.

After we were given our results we adjourned to the pub for a few well-earned pints. Guinness of course and to discuss the up coming theory exam and the weekend long practical.

More to come.

Our Photo Index of SA Marine Life has now reached the stage where we are able to start including slides by members of the general public. The Index now comprises over 300 slides - almost 200 fish slides and over 100 invertebrate ones. There is, however, scope for many more. Could all Society members now encourage other underwater photographers to submit their work for our Index. We need lots more invertebrate slides and possibly almost as many fish ones. Check out our 2000 Journal issue for more details. Not mentioned in the Journal is that we could use some slides of seahorses, pipefish, sharks, marine mammals, corals and much more. Interested photographers would be contributing to a worthwhile education resource that is increasing in demand. They should contact myself on 8447 2815 for more details.

31 January 2001

Small Couch’s Sea Bream, Pagrus pagrus, have been numerous around Guernsey so far this year. The Guernsey Fishermen's Trading Company says they have seen dozens.. One fisherman operating a small trawler / potter landed to a retailer 16 all weighing about 340 grams (12 oz) each. The neighbouring retailer in the Town Market had 6 small Couch’s Sea Bream delivered.

Couch’s Sea Bream, also called the Common Sea Bream, reach their most northerly point of distribution in the English Channel and are not regularly recorded, although year 2000 was graced with quite a number of reports of sea bream from more southerly seas.

Report by Richard Lord (Guernsey)

28 January 2001

Jean Lawman and others spotted a large 8-10 metre long Minke Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, off Porthcurno, Cornwall. This specimen was larger than one seen earlier in January.

Report by Stella Turk via the Cornish Wildlife Mailing List

12 January 2001

Jim Hall discovered the curious lamellarid mollusc called Lamellaria perspicua on a bare boulder on the extreme lower shore (on a spring tide) of Lydstep beach, 3 miles from Tenby, SW Wales. This prosobranch molluscs has also been discovered by Jon Makeham at Hannafore Beach, Looe, Cornwall.

January 2001

A large Common Octopus, Octopus vulgaris, was caught by a Cornish trawlerman Alan Nudd and housed at Newquay "Blue Reef" Aquarium. It was a large specimen with a span including the arms of 150 cm (5 ft). Common Octopuses are common in the Mediterranean but unusual in the English Channel, with only a handful reported each year. However, the smaller Curled Octopus, Eledone cirrhosa, is found off most British coasts.

Report by Clive Bremner (from Metro News, a free London newspaper)

7 January 2001

Several hundred Long-spined Bullheads, Taurulus bubalis, were found up washed on the strandline on Lancing beach, West Sussex. This has not been recorded before. It was breeding time for these small fish.

Report by Robert Clark, Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee

 7 January 2001

A pod of 20-25 Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, were reported to us off Noirmont (SW Jersey). Bottle-nosed Dolphins are seen regularly around Jersey in the first 2 months of the year. The common spot to see them is the Gorey Bank. On a clear day they can be seen with the naked eye.

Report by Nicolas Jouault

January 2001

An oiled Gannet is reported from Widewater Lagoon, Lancing, Sussex. This was the first sign of a much greater oil spill off the Sussex coast with scores of oiled Guillemots and other birds.
Sussex RSPCA. Report by Ray Hamblett

January 2001

Luke Richards discovered a blue specimen of the Common Hermit Crab, Pagurus bernhardus from the east coast of the Isle of Wight. The legs and body of this hermit crab are usually orange and cream. A parasitic rhizocephalan barnacle is suspected to be responsible for this phenomenon and the exact species is still a subject of discussion.

Believe it or not, a wetland does not have to be wet all the time. Wetlands typically contain shallow water, but they may not always be wet. However, they are areas that are wet for sufficiently long periods, so that plants and animals living in them are adapted to, and often dependant on, living in wet conditions for at least part of their life cycle.

Wetlands support high levels of biological diversity and are significant on a local, regional, national and international scale, providing critical habitats for many species of fauna and flora. Countless mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and invertebrate species, quite often threatened with extinction, depend upon these habitats for their survival. Their value is further evidenced by the fact that wetlands can produce up to 8 times as much plant material as wheat fields. This productivity depends on the proper ecological functioning of wetlands.

Wetlands are among the world’s most valuable and productive environments. They provide economic benefits to mankind through provision of fishery production, maintenance of water tables, timber production, water storage, silt deposition, reduction of turbidity and of natural hazards (floods), which may impact upon agricultural productivity.

Temporary Wetlands during their drying out phase help with the decomposition of nutrients. This allows the nutrients to be available for plant growth when the wet periods resumes. Wetlands are also linked to ground water. Sometimes ground water can be the major source of water to a wetland. Likewise wetlands can be a major source of recharge water to the ground water system.

Healthy water dependent ecosystems rely on all five elements being correct. The five key elements are an appropriate water regime, good water quality, a healthy riparian zone, good physical habitat and the diversity and abundance of native biota. Actions that aim to maintain or improve the health of the ecosystems must address all these elements. Actions that address only one element when all are degraded will have limited success.

Well, the news is not good. Overall, around 50% of Australia’s wetlands have been drained or converted to "other uses" (Commonwealth of Australia 1997). The situation in South Australia is even worse. Less than 30% of pre-settlement wetlands remain in South Australia, and many of these are degraded. South Australia lags behind the rest of the Commonwealth of Australia with regard to investigating the biology of its wetlands by 15-20 years. In this State wetland assessment of conservation significance is based on criteria that exclude one of the largest components of biodiversity in aquatic systems: - ie the aquatic invertebrates.

Approaches to the classification and inventory of Australian wetlands vary from state to state and at the national level. While a number of practical approaches will always be necessary for differing purposes, the current value of existing methods for assessing biodiversity and animal conservation within South Australia is questionable because these methods generally exclude invertebrates. Most publications that deal with the conservation of Australian wetlands recognise the importance of aquatic invertebrates (Yen and Butcher 1997). This is not the case within South Australian, with nothing/ little known regarding aquatic wetland life, water chemistry and general hydrology of wetlands in the State. We don’t know what aquatic fauna and flora is within the water…what we have lost , what we are losing or being replaced with?

Sustainable Management of Australia’s Inland Waters. 1996.

Professor Peter Tyler, School of Ecology & Environment, Deakin University,

Sustainable Management of Australia’s Inland Waters. 1996.

Professor Bill Williams, Dept. of Zoology, Adelaide University.

Wetlands support high levels of biological diversity and are significant on a local, regional, national and international scale, providing critical habitats for many species of fauna and flora. Countless mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish and invertebrate species, quite often threatened with extinction, depend upon these habitats for their survival. Their value is further evidenced by the fact that wetlands can produce up to 8 times as much plant material as wheat fields. This productivity depends on the proper ecological functioning of wetlands. However nationally wetlands are among the most threatened habitats due mainly to drainage, land reclaimation, pollution and over exploitation of wetland species.

The situation in South Australia is even worse. Less than 30% of pre-settlement wetlands remain in South Australia, and many of these are degraded. Within the Greater Adelaide Metropolitan area <1% of natural wetlands are left. In the Mt Lofty Ranges 1% of permanent wetlands remain and in the South East < 4% (approx 400) remain. In both regions, draining of wetlands for agriculture has been the main cause of loss. On Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas there has been massive loss and salinisation of wetlands. Of the 1100 wetlands along the Murray River within South Australia, the majority are degraded. Flows to the River Murray have decreased by more than two thirds, and the Murray mouth threatens to close with sandbars. Up to half of the artesian flows from the mound springs on the edge of the Great Artesian Basin have dried up, because there have been too many artesian bores sunk that the pressure has been reduced, and the water no longer reaches the surface at the same rates. We are losing wetland systems, habtats, and the biological diversity they contain, because we continue to divert and drain water and allow livestock to graze and weeds to invade them. Despite a growing understanding of wetland values and functions they remain one of our most threatened and unknown resources.

Sustainable Management of Australia’s Inland Waters. 1996.

Dr. Dianna Day, Senior Strategic Planner, NSW Dept of Water Resources

The National Directory of Important Wetlands lists 68 wetlands in South Australia which are considered of high conservation status. These important wetlands combined, cover more than 4.1 million hectares of the State. However an accurate assessment of the status of the State’s wetlands cannot be made due to the lack of a comprehensive ecological survey of up to date information, is presentable in a form readily accessible, and understood by decision makers and the public.

We know almost nothing about the aquatic life contained within and condition of remaining wetlands in South Australia. We need to research wetland functions, to document what is found there, to continue to monitor for rehabilitation, and undertake management programs of Wetland Ecosystems. Little to nothing is currently being done with South Australia.

Drainage of wetlands

Diversion of waters from ground water sources, permanent water holes and local streams

Local salinisation

Rising ground water tables

Clearance and grazing of riparian and wetland vegetation

Introduced plant and animal species

Impacts on ground water fed streams and ponds

Water quality changes from agricultural run-off and increased salinity

Rubbish Dumping

The impact of European settlement on South Australia’s wetlands has been severe. The majority of wetlands have been lost, with most of those that remain having been affected by one or more degrading processes. The main process contributing to wetland loss and degradation is clearing of native vegetation and drainage.

Therefore it is aimed to:

1) Prevent the further loss or degradation of natural wetlands, including the biological diversity (algae, macrophytes, invertebrate, vertebrate life) and abundance of wetland dependant wildlife.

2) Ensure wetland management including appropriate wetland creation, is undertaken within the context of Integrated Catchment Management, and that use of wetlands by industry and the community is ecologically sustainable.

3) Develop community awareness and appreciation of the values and benefits of wetlands.

4) Conduct further biological inventories and research to improve understanding of environmental requirements of wetlands.

Regional inventories of wetland resources (regional biological surveys) to determine status and distribution of wetlands on an on-going basis.

Document South Australia’s wetlands on a catchment, regional or location basis, recording their distribution, attributes, values (biological and physical), functions, uses, and threats, and entering information gained onto an electronic database on an on-going basis.

Develop educational material and distribution of information to Regional Centres.

Provision of information on wetlands to local action planning groups for integration into catchment management activities.

Provision of technical advice and extension resources to meet the demand for advice from landholders and Government (Local, State, Commonwealth) on wetland management and rehabilitation.

State wide co-ordination of wetland management activities.

Assist in better decision making with regards to Biodiversity Planning by the State Government

Sustainable Management of Australia’s Inland Waters. 1996 ANZAAS 1994 Science Summit: Water – From the Centre to the Edge. Published by the Amazon Printing, Warrnambool, Victoria 3280.

Commonwealth of Australia 1997. Wetlands Policy of the Australian Government, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Yen, Al., and Butcher, R.J. 1997. An overview of the conservation of non-marine invertebrates of Australia. Report to Endangered Species Unit, Environment Australia. 346pp

It has become apparent that there is a critical gap in the State’s biodiversity knowledge regarding wetlands. Despite the State’s dry image, it contains a wide variety of wetlands, including those of recognised international importance and those that fill intermittently eg. Lake Eyre. There is a need within the State Government for a Wetland Section to investigate, document and research wetland bio-diversity and issues within the State of South Australia.

To achieve this there needs to be a full time, permanent aquatic zoologist, an aquatic botanist and two Project Officers with GIS skills, to maintain a GIS Wetland Data base that is linked with the data base of Environment Australia, Canberra. Also the Project Officers need to develop material and on ground action plans, and support programs for key wetland areas

The role of the section would be to:

Conduct biological surveys of the States wetlands to fill gaps in knowledge:

ie Identification of fauna and flora

• Algae
• Aquatic macrophytes
• Microinvertebrates
• Macroinvertebrates
• Fish spp. (in collaboration with SARDI)
• Other Vertebrates (amphibians, turtles)

Documentation and survey of the flora and fauna of wetlands with results:

• Entered onto a Wetland Data base
• Published in Government Reports
• Scientific publications

Conduct basic physio-chemical and geomorphological surveys of wetlands.

• Determine wetland type
• Obtain basic physio-chemical parameters

Contribute knowledge and understanding of wetlands for better management:

• Wetting and drying cycles
• Temporary and permanent wetlands

Development of guidelines for wetland management and on-ground actions:

• On a regional basis
• On individual wetlands as the need arises
• develop material and on-ground action plans

Coordinate management inputs for State and nationally important wetlands:

• support programs for key wetland areas

Coordinate advice on wetland issues within South Australian Government:

• to the General Public
• to Local Government
• to Federal Government
• to State Govt agencies

This would allow a baseline data set which future changes within wetlands may be measured against. It would also allow informed management decisions to be made on environmental matters regarding the wise water use for wetlands, and the aquatic life contained within such wetlands.

Voronica Whitney-Robinson, an Exotics Biotechnician at Seattle Aquarium, contacted MLSSA in 1997 with a request for information on Leafy Seadragons and their care in an aquarium environment. I gave her as much information as I could and mentioned possible contacts including Tony Isaacson. Subsequently, after much work by Voronica, a display of Seadragons, supplied by Dallas World Aquarium has been set up in the Seattle complex. Voronica wrote an article on this project for our 1999 Journal.

She and her partner Rob are now to be in South Australia from Monday March 26^th to Monday 2^nd April. "The trip is being made possible by Wizards of the Coast, a US gaming company. Even they were able to realize the benefits of studying Leafies, even for a short time, in their natural habitat," writes Voronica.

Tony is organising a barbecue for us to meet and talk with Voronica. The details from Tony are these:

"I suggest that we start a bbq around 5.30 for 6.00pm on Tuesday 27th March at Kingston House (opposite Irene and Tony’s house, 13 Strickland Avenue, Kingston Park, 83770935). There are two electric bbq’s in good condition. As this is so handy to home, people can arrive and depart according to their own schedule. It is a suggestion to BYO everything for the bbq. The stayers then can assess the marine life across the road at our place."

Tony hopes to organise several dives so contact him direct if you wish to be involved. "When I was dreaming this morning I visualised Second Valley and Rapid Bay for the weekend that they are here. The Wednesday 28th through Friday 30^th March is not scheduled as far as I know and I reckon that our network of divers could come up with some suggestions. My thought is to get them to meet Bryon Buick & Indiana James and/or the diving hostel/Reef Watch crew at Penneshaw to have the Kangaroo Island experience with some escorted diving. A dive or three could be the go and at the end of the week Voronica should be able to reflect upon some close encounters with LSD (Sheryn Pittman’s term of endearment for Leafy Seadragons). That’s what the sponsors are expecting her to experience while she is here. She should also take away the spectrum of attitudes that surround LSD's in the captive environment and how her activities might be changed by those views."