Tidal Moon leveraging traditional knowledge to bring banc Australia's first ever export the sea cucumber
Jennifer Verduin, a marine scientist at Perth's Murdoch University, agrees that the relationship might be 'mutually beneficial,' saying sea cucumbers are 'the worms of the ocean.'
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News.com.au
10 hours ago
- News.com.au
Meteorite slams into Earth's atmosphere at 34km per second above Western Australia
A meteorite has been captured lighting up skies over Western Australia on 'as a fist-sized chunk of space rock slammed' into the Earth's atmosphere at 34km per second, according to the Perth Observatory. An observatory spokesman said the meteorite was a leftover fragile cometary fragment made up of icy, dusty debris from the early stages of the solar system. 'When these objects enter Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors,' a spokesman said on social media. 'If they're especially bright, like this one, they're often referred to as fireballs.' The spokesman said the meteorite entered the atmosphere over the ocean about 300km southwest of Perth, then began to heat up and break producing flashes of light on Wednesday night. 'The entire light show ended at an altitude of 69km, with the object destroyed,' the spokesman said. 'No fragments reached the ground.'
SBS Australia
2 days ago
- SBS Australia
Great Barrier Reef suffers sharp decline in coral coverage after 'unheard of' heat events
The latest survey from The Australian Institute of Marine Science shows coral cover on parts of the Great Barrier Reef has reduced by as much as a third from record high levels following a global mass bleaching event. The heat-vulnerable tropical ecosystem off the coast of Queensland has experienced its sharpest decline in hard coral prevalence in four decades, with a 2024 spike in ocean temperatures largely to blame. The survey does not capture the most recent bleaching event confirmed earlier in 2025 that struck the Great Barrier Reef as well as ecosystems off the Western Australian coastline. The growing prevalence of bleaching events Report co-author Dr Daniela Ceccarelli was concerned about the growing prevalence of bleaching events. "These back-to-back events were previously completely unheard of," Ceccarelli said. Heat stress events in quick succession were worrying given the emerging dominance of "fast to grow and first to go" Acropora coral species. Capable of bouncing back quickly after a destructive event when given more space to expand, the fast-growing varieties were largely responsible for the previous survey's record-high coral coverage rates. Ceccarelli likened the fast-growing corals to grasses and bushes that shoot up first after a bushfire. "And if you were to fly over, you'd go 'it's nice and green, it's great'," she explained. "But the trees are not there yet." Marine experts fear corals may not adapt to and recover from the impacts of climate change. Source: AAP / AAPIMAGE Heat stress threatening coral recovery With heat stress events coming too often for hardier, slow-growing corals to get a foothold, Ceccarelli warned such cycles of crash and rapid recovery were becoming more common. "The question is, how long can this go on before we reach a low from which recovery is not possible? "We don't know that, but it's worrying we aren't getting a lot of time between heatwaves anymore." Particularly sensitive to heat stress, corals expel the algae living in their tissues when water is too warm, causing the coral to turn completely white. Coral can recover from bleaching but it is a sign of stress and can kill the organisms if severe enough. Cyclones and crown-of-thorn starfish outbreaks also contribute to reef damage, but AIMS said climate change-fuelled ocean warming drove much of the 2024 coral coverage decline. Marine experts say coral can recover from bleaching but it can be fatal if severe enough Credit: AAPIMAGE Fears over further decline in reef health The entire tropical ecosystem recorded falls in coral coverage — an internationally-recognised indicator of reef health — but declines were sharpest in the south. Coverage fell by nearly a third in the southern region, from 38.9 per cent to 26.9 per cent. North of Cooktown, coverage fell by roughly a quarter. In the central region, hard corals shrunk nearly 14 per cent. Even with those sharp declines, when coming from such a high base, overall coverage is now hovering around long-run averages. AIMS chief executive officer Selina Stead said ocean warming caused by climate change was clearly impacting coral reefs. "The future of the world's coral reefs relies on strong greenhouse gas emissions reduction, management of local and regional pressures, and development of approaches to help reefs adapt to and recover from the impacts of climate," Stead said.
West Australian
3 days ago
- West Australian
WA scientists band together to control spread of invasive polyphagous shot-hole borer
WA scientists are banding together to tackle the mammoth task of controlling and managing the polyphagous shot-hole borer, with three research projects to minimise the risk of infestation beyond the Perth metro area. The WA Agricultural Research Collaboration will invest $2.17 million across three projects led by the University of Western Australia, Murdoch University, and Curtin University. As of June, there had been 764 active infested premises identified, 1161 trees pruned, and 4794 trees removed in the fight against the Polphagous shot-hole borer. The first project to increase tools for control of the beetle will be led by UWA Associate Professor Theo Evans. The project will research the beetle's dispersal behaviour and survival, chemical control methods, biological control, and increasing community engagement and reporting of shot-hole borer infection. Dr Evans said the outcomes of the project would include a better understanding of the beetle's dispersal behaviour and survival, preventative control through tree trunk injections and new biocontrol agents, and new management tools to save trees from being destroyed. Labor MLC Dr Parwinder Kaur, who represented WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis at the forum, said the borer had a 'reproductive superpower' that hastens the spread of the invasive beetle — that an entire colony can spring from a female beetle. 'From a scientific point of view it's really interesting as an example of a one-woman army,' she said. 'A single female — just one female — is enough to start an entire colony.' Female polyphagous shot-hole borers carry a symbiotic fungus in their bodies, Fusarium fungus, which is used by the beetle as a food source. Dr Kaur said the beetles were farmer's themselves, but that it was the fungus that is killing trees — not the borer — and that it had the potential to devastate WA horticulture. 'They're turning the tree into a mushroom farm, but unfortunately, it kills the tree from the inside out,' she said. 'It's not just bad news for the metro community, this pest would have serious consequences for biodiversity and horticulture, and I think that's where the urgency is coming from.' The polyphagous shot-hole borer has never been eradicated in other parts of the world it has invaded, like California. 'WA is not alone in facing these challenges, but we do have an opportunity to lead and manage it effectively.' A quarantine area remains in place for the Perth metro area, covering 30 local governments across more than 6400sqkm. The second project led by Murdoch University's Harry Butler Institute executive director Treena Burgess and ArborCarbon will develop an integrated pest containment strategy for long-term control of the invasive beetle. The biology and host susceptibility of the beetle will be studied as part of the project with the expectation of gaining a greater understanding of the biology of the pathogen, as well as environmental risk factors influencing the severity of damage to trees. Avocados Australia WA director Duncan Wells said growers were concerned about the vulnerability faced by orchards, awareness in the nursery and supply chain, mitigation of the pest, and quarantine and movement restrictions, but welcomed the commitment from the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development to liaise with industry, community, and local government to manage the invasive beetle. 'We also welcome DPIRD's commitment to build upon the WA Agriculture Research Collaboration research projects to explore improved surveillance and treatment options to support the long-term management of the pest,' he said. The third project led by Curtin University's professor Ben Phillips, a population biologist, will develop decision support tools for the management of the beetle including predictive models and risk maps which will be used to prioritise surveillance control efforts, efficient resource allocation, and decision-making. WAARC director Kelly Pearce said the research and response to the beetle was being watched closely by the rest of the country as WA transitions to management on the invasion. 'We now move to the challenge of control, management, and long-term management.' 'Our goal is to look forward. 'We're here to focus on what happens next and how research can contribute to coordinate an effective response — we know the rest of Australia is watching our responses closely.'
