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Sydney Morning Herald
24-07-2025
- Science
- Sydney Morning Herald
How just two litres of water can uncover the mysteries of the sea
How do you detect the presence of a bony-eared assfish, lurking 3000 metres below the surface of the ocean? By testing for evidence of its urine, of course. Scientists have spent the past three years painstakingly mapping the DNA of Australia's oceans, filtering the waters to collect the DNA 'breadcrumbs' animals leave behind. From just two litres of water, they can identify the DNA of every creature that has passed through the environment over the previous hours and days, allowing them to collect evidence of the animals' presence without nets and ropes. A multiyear project run by Minderoo Foundation and Parks Australia, spanning 13 dedicated voyages and several secondary voyages, has identified 257,497 marine vertebrates across Australian marine parks spanning 4000 kilometres north to south, and 6000 kilometres east to west. The environmental DNA (eDNA) project has not only spotlit where rare and threatened marine species are, but has also inadvertently discovered species previously unknown to science. 'Of course, we see more of them in places like deep-sea ecosystems, where people haven't gone before and surveyed the biodiversity down there,' said Professor Michael Bunce, the head of OceanOmics at Minderoo. 'What's going to be crucial is putting protections around some of these special places before they disappear.' Bony-eared assfish – a form of cusk-eel – are delicate creatures resembling a cross between a jellyfish and a tadpole, and are found in tropical and subtropical waters to depths of up to 4000 metres. Identifying them would usually involve extracting them from the depths of the ocean, thereby killing them. Other mid- and deep-sea creatures identified by the research teams include similarly intriguingly named rattails, slimeheads, pearlfish, slickheads and lanternfish. Despite rapid advances in scientific knowledge, oceans remain the great unknown, with estimates there could be up to 500,000 marine species in Australia's oceans, including corals, plankton and shellfish – of which just 33,000 have been identified. Work to sequence the DNA of marine life is slow and painstaking, but Bunce said Minderoo Foundation had set a goal to sequence the genetic 'barcodes' of all 5000 known marine fish, a task that is about halfway complete. A further 500 vertebrates call Australian waters home, including seabirds, whales, sealions and dolphins. The organisation is one of the partners of the national science agency CSIRO, which has set an ambitious target to create a national biodiversity DNA library for Australia, which it says would offer enormous fisheries, biosecurity and environmental benefits. The $11.8 million multiyear eDNA partnership between Minderoo Foundation and Parks Australia took seawater samples from a range of ocean environments, from tropical reefs to 6000 metres below the surface of the water. Bunce said sea creatures shed DNA in various ways, but mostly from the waste they expel. 'They're defecating and urinating in the water columns, so we're literally swimming around in a whole pile of DNA ... and that's kind of cool and gross at the same time,' he said. After animals shed DNA, it can be detectable for between a few hours and a few days before it is broken down by water movements, temperatures, UV radiation and other factors. DNA is broken down more rapidly in shallow and warm waters, while in cold and dark deep-sea settings, it can persist for a week or more. While all animals contain those genetic breadcrumbs, which are scattered through our oceans, different species lose DNA in different ways. Bunce said turtles and sea snakes slough smaller amounts of DNA as they move through water, making them more difficult to detect, while baitfish were easily identified as they were eaten in great numbers and expelled out the back ends of larger species. Not that there is such a thing as a perfect science – Bunce said researchers joked about the cats, dogs and salmon apparently detected in remote oceans, their DNA deposited into pristine waters from boats above. Armed with more than a quarter of a million observations of sea creatures, the project's leaders then turned their sights to offering their science to the Australian public, and the world. Minderoo Foundation's new OceanOmics eDNA Dashboard, launched today, combines artificial intelligence with eDNA to allow users to explore the data by species or marine park, or to 'chat' with AI to interrogate the data. A Minderoo spokesman said the dashboard would be 'a game-changer for marine conservation as everyday Australians can now visualise the ocean in an entirely new way'. Dr Philipp Bayer, principal of computational biology at Minderoo Foundation, said scientists had recovered more than 1.2 billion DNA sequence readings from their surveys, with each two-litre eDNA seawater sample averaging 62 different marine species detections. Scientists made almost 258,000 marine vertebrate eDNA observations, including 2019 bony fish species and 95 cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays and chimaeras) species. 'This is a lot of data,' Bayer said. 'To make sense of it all, and enable people to interact with the data, we co-developed a dashboard that allows users to explore the living fabric of our oceans at scale. 'The dashboard focuses on making complex science accessible. While we can't see DNA, we can read it – and now we can visualise the output too.' Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt welcomed the innovation, describing it as a game-changer for marine conservation. 'We can now 'visualise' the ocean in an entirely new way – from threatened handfish to whale sharks, we're gaining insights that were unimaginable just a few years ago,' he said. 'By co-investing in world-leading science like this, we're better equipped to protect the incredible biodiversity in our marine parks and make evidence-based decisions for the future.'
The Age
24-07-2025
- Science
- The Age
How just two litres of water can uncover the mysteries of the sea
How do you detect the presence of a bony-eared assfish, lurking 3000 metres below the surface of the ocean? By testing for evidence of its urine, of course. Scientists have spent the past three years painstakingly mapping the DNA of Australia's oceans, filtering the waters to collect the DNA 'breadcrumbs' animals leave behind. From just two litres of water, they can identify the DNA of every creature that has passed through the environment over the previous hours and days, allowing them to collect evidence of the animals' presence without nets and ropes. A multiyear project run by Minderoo Foundation and Parks Australia, spanning 13 dedicated voyages and several secondary voyages, has identified 257,497 marine vertebrates across Australian marine parks spanning 4000 kilometres north to south, and 6000 kilometres east to west. The environmental DNA (eDNA) project has not only spotlit where rare and threatened marine species are, but has also inadvertently discovered species previously unknown to science. 'Of course, we see more of them in places like deep-sea ecosystems, where people haven't gone before and surveyed the biodiversity down there,' said Professor Michael Bunce, the head of OceanOmics at Minderoo. 'What's going to be crucial is putting protections around some of these special places before they disappear.' Bony-eared assfish – a form of cusk-eel – are delicate creatures resembling a cross between a jellyfish and a tadpole, and are found in tropical and subtropical waters to depths of up to 4000 metres. Identifying them would usually involve extracting them from the depths of the ocean, thereby killing them. Other mid- and deep-sea creatures identified by the research teams include similarly intriguingly named rattails, slimeheads, pearlfish, slickheads and lanternfish. Despite rapid advances in scientific knowledge, oceans remain the great unknown, with estimates there could be up to 500,000 marine species in Australia's oceans, including corals, plankton and shellfish – of which just 33,000 have been identified. Work to sequence the DNA of marine life is slow and painstaking, but Bunce said Minderoo Foundation had set a goal to sequence the genetic 'barcodes' of all 5000 known marine fish, a task that is about halfway complete. A further 500 vertebrates call Australian waters home, including seabirds, whales, sealions and dolphins. The organisation is one of the partners of the national science agency CSIRO, which has set an ambitious target to create a national biodiversity DNA library for Australia, which it says would offer enormous fisheries, biosecurity and environmental benefits. The $11.8 million multiyear eDNA partnership between Minderoo Foundation and Parks Australia took seawater samples from a range of ocean environments, from tropical reefs to 6000 metres below the surface of the water. Bunce said sea creatures shed DNA in various ways, but mostly from the waste they expel. 'They're defecating and urinating in the water columns, so we're literally swimming around in a whole pile of DNA ... and that's kind of cool and gross at the same time,' he said. After animals shed DNA, it can be detectable for between a few hours and a few days before it is broken down by water movements, temperatures, UV radiation and other factors. DNA is broken down more rapidly in shallow and warm waters, while in cold and dark deep-sea settings, it can persist for a week or more. While all animals contain those genetic breadcrumbs, which are scattered through our oceans, different species lose DNA in different ways. Bunce said turtles and sea snakes slough smaller amounts of DNA as they move through water, making them more difficult to detect, while baitfish were easily identified as they were eaten in great numbers and expelled out the back ends of larger species. Not that there is such a thing as a perfect science – Bunce said researchers joked about the cats, dogs and salmon apparently detected in remote oceans, their DNA deposited into pristine waters from boats above. Armed with more than a quarter of a million observations of sea creatures, the project's leaders then turned their sights to offering their science to the Australian public, and the world. Minderoo Foundation's new OceanOmics eDNA Dashboard, launched today, combines artificial intelligence with eDNA to allow users to explore the data by species or marine park, or to 'chat' with AI to interrogate the data. A Minderoo spokesman said the dashboard would be 'a game-changer for marine conservation as everyday Australians can now visualise the ocean in an entirely new way'. Dr Philipp Bayer, principal of computational biology at Minderoo Foundation, said scientists had recovered more than 1.2 billion DNA sequence readings from their surveys, with each two-litre eDNA seawater sample averaging 62 different marine species detections. Scientists made almost 258,000 marine vertebrate eDNA observations, including 2019 bony fish species and 95 cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays and chimaeras) species. 'This is a lot of data,' Bayer said. 'To make sense of it all, and enable people to interact with the data, we co-developed a dashboard that allows users to explore the living fabric of our oceans at scale. 'The dashboard focuses on making complex science accessible. While we can't see DNA, we can read it – and now we can visualise the output too.' Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt welcomed the innovation, describing it as a game-changer for marine conservation. 'We can now 'visualise' the ocean in an entirely new way – from threatened handfish to whale sharks, we're gaining insights that were unimaginable just a few years ago,' he said. 'By co-investing in world-leading science like this, we're better equipped to protect the incredible biodiversity in our marine parks and make evidence-based decisions for the future.'
ABC News
03-07-2025
- ABC News
Traditional owners reopen Gunlom Falls in Kakadu after six-year closure
One of the most picturesque waterfalls in Kakadu National Park is set to be reopened to the public today, following a six-year closure. Gunlom Falls, located about 4 hours' drive south-east of Darwin, is one of the most popular spots in the World Heritage-listed national park, famed for its panoramic views. The return of visitors marks the final chapter in a years-long dispute over the disturbance of a sacred men's site near the falls, for which Parks Australia was fined a record amount for breaching NT laws. The reopening has been hotly anticipated by tourists and comes at the peak of the territory's tourism season. A previous planned reopening in May was cancelled at the last minute after unseasonably heavy rain flooded the site. The Gunlom Falls campground and top pool will be open from 8am this morning, but the bottom pool will remain fenced off for now as rangers continue searching for a saltwater crocodile believed to be inhabiting the area — suspected to be at least 4 metres long. Traditional dances will be performed later in the morning to celebrate the reopening and a jumping castle will be set up for kids. "Come enjoy yourself, just have respect for the country itself and respect that the bottom pool is closed for safety reasons until further notice," Bernie Calma, a ranger and traditional owner of the Jawoyn people's Matjba clan, said. Rangers have carried out extensive crocodile survey work in the lead-up to the reopening and had removed one 2-metre crocodile, Ms Calma confirmed. But she said a second, bigger crocodile believed to be more than 4 metres long was still unaccounted for. Jawoyn traditional owners camped out at the site on the day before the waterfall's reopening, in a gathering Ms Calma said was "pretty overwhelming" for many who had not been on-country for some time. Gunlom Falls has been closed since 2019, when damage to a sacred site triggered a protracted legal dispute that ultimately reached the High Court. That year, Parks Australia built a walking track to help visitors reach the top pools more safely. The route went against the wishes of traditional owners and exposed a sacred men's site. Parks Australia was initially successful in arguing it was immune from the Northern Territory's sacred site laws, but the High Court later overturned that ruling, finding the agency could be held criminally liable. Parks Australia then pleaded guilty to disturbing the site and carrying out the works without an authority certificate from the NT's sacred site watchdog. At an on-country hearing last year, Judge Elizabeth Morris said the public expected "conduct of the highest order" from the federal agency and issued it with a $200,000 fine, the largest ever under the NT's sacred site laws. Ms Calma said the reopening was a moment of closure for traditional owners. "When we won the court case we all felt really good about it — we were really happy that the ancestors and our old people believed in us, [that we] would fight for country." The dispute over Gunlom occurred during a period of strain in the relationship between Indigenous custodians and park management. Ms Calma said that relationship had since been "mended really well" and was now on the right track. "We're looking forward to working with Parks Australia more on other sacred sites within the park as well," she said.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Detail in beach photo proves $17 billion Aussie issue is 'getting worse'
A major clean-up effort to rid northern Australia's coastlines of deadly ghost nets is under threat, with a federally funded scheme in place since 2021 yet to be renewed. Authorities at the Top End warn that should the government permanently discontinue the grant — which is scheduled to expire at the end of June — it would be a "huge blow" to the "critically important" work being undertaken to combat the crisis. Since 2021, rangers at Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory have removed 140,000 kilograms of rubbish and 800 ghost fishing nets — the abandoned, lost or discarded fishing nets that can drift for years — from the Top End's remote beaches and bays. They often haul them out by hand in punishing conditions, from sites accessible only a few weeks each year. Parks Australia, a division within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, is responsible for delivering the $15 million Ghost Net Initiative, which has helped 22 Indigenous ranger groups in their clean-up efforts. But, at the end of this month, that support is set to end. Ghost nets and pollutive debris in the Top End wreak havoc on marine life, trapping and killing turtles, dolphins, and countless other creatures. They silently destroy fragile ecosystems, turning vibrant waters into graveyards. Scientists estimate that globally between 8 and 10 million tonnes of plastic pollute the ocean every year. Experts warn that, within the next 25 years, plastic waste may even outweigh all the fish in the sea. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for the Northern Land Council (NLC), the body representing the Aboriginal people of the Top End, said the decision not to renew funding is devastating. "The recent NT Government budget cuts to the Aboriginal ranger grants were a huge blow to ranger groups right across the Territory," a NLC spokesperson said. "We would hate to see more money go from a program that is actually working." Thanks to funding from the Ghost Net Initiative, researchers have been able to deploy drones and AI technology to detect and retrieve abandoned fishing nets along remote stretches of coastline. Scientists say they've found ghost nets roughly every kilometre in the region, tangled in rocks, buried in sand, or lodged in mangroves. The drones can spot net fragments as small as 50 centimetres, and AI software then analyses the images and sends exact coordinates to the rangers for recovery. The NLC spokesperson said the work ranger groups do to de-tangle and remove these harmful nets is "incredibly time-consuming, hard-going and above all critically important" to protecting the flora and fauna of the area. "Our rangers must be funded properly to do this work," they said. They say the problem is only getting worse. In Arnhem Land, Indigenous rangers have reported finding nets on beaches they had cleared just weeks earlier — the debris carried in once more on seasonal tides. "When the nets come, they trap animals like buffaloes, turtles and dolphins," senior ranger Clive Nunggarrgalu told the ABC. "We can cut the nets and free turtles, but even young buffaloes get trapped in the nets along the sand." Ghost nets are a global threat, but northern Australia is at the epicentre. The Gulf of Carpentaria is considered the world's worst hotspot for ghost gear. Marine plastic pollution is estimated to cause AUD $17.3 billion a year in ecosystem damage and about $132 million per year in local government clean-up costs. "Some of the beaches, they look great, but the rubbish is underneath the sand," Nunggarrgalu said. Yahoo News Australia contacted Parks Australia on whether there were plans to renew the scheme, but a spokesperson told us its continuation remains dependent on future budget decisions. Meaning, no commitment has been made yet, and the program's future will hinge on government funding allocations in the coming budget cycles. "Removing ghost nets addresses critical risks to marine species which become entangled, lacerated or strangled by these abandoned fishing nets," the spokesperson said. "Focused on northern Australian waters and the Gulf of Carpentaria, known as the world's ghost net hotspot, this initiative has helped reduce threats to marine wildlife and supported First Nations economic development." 10-tonne find on Aussie beach highlights devastating issue Calls for major change after 'devastating' find among bones Disturbing find exposes problem taking over Aussie waterways The spokesperson said the Indigenous Ranger Coastal Clean-up Project has supported 22 Indigenous Ranger Groups involving 3,400 people, and the government has invested $1.4 million in regional partnerships through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative and the Arafura and Timor Seas Ecosystem Action (ATSEA) Program, which brings together Australia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea to address marine pollution. "We will continue to work with our regional partners to tackle this issue in our shared waters," they said. Still, those on the ground say global plans mean little without boots in the sand. "We look forward to hearing from the federal environment minister on the next steps for this program and its funding," the NLC said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Major development after Aboriginal group shut down spectacular swimming spot for SIX years
A spectacular swimming hole in the Northern Territory will reopen after the traditional owners closed it off from the public for six years. The famous Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park was closed after Parks Australia built a walkway up to a scenic view. Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) launched legal action claiming the work was done near a sacred site without their permission. Under the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act, all construction work must be agreed to and signed off by the AAPA. The dispute went to court with the federally run Parks Australia fined $200,000 and issuing an apology. However, traditional owners from the Gunlom Aboriginal Land Trust have given the green light for Parks Australia to reopen the falls to the public. It comes as Northern Land Council has negotiated a new lease agreement with the federal government for Kakadu National Park, with increased rent of $10.7 million per year. Parks is now conducting final safety checks ahead of a planned reopening for the falls in late May. After the rainy season from November to April, the site has a roaring waterfall cascading down 85-metre cliffs to an emerald billabong. The falls also offer stunning views across the south of Kakadu National Park. The billabong will be open for swimming during the dry season from May to October. There is a public campground near the base of the falls, complete with showers and toilets, while the nearest accommodation is Cooinda Lodge, about an hour away by 4WD. The falls, previously known as UDP falls after the Uranium Developing and Prospecting Company, have long attracted tourists to the Northern Territory. In 1986 the site appeared in the movie Crocodile Dundee.
