Marine Biodiversity in Southern Sydney Harbour Project

Welcome to our new project, sponsored by Blue World (http://www.blueworld.net.au/about/) with a prize in the namesake of Valerie Taylor, the iconic Sydney-based ocean conservationist (if you haven’t already done so, DO check out her documentary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11226258/). The upcoming Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project will be led by me, Dr Joseph DiBattista, humble Curator of Fishes at the Australian Museum (https://australian.museum/get-involved/staff-profiles/joseph-dibattista/).

The primary aim of this community-focused project is to increase marine biodiversity observations in southern Sydney Harbour at Parsley Bay, Camp Cove (Watsons Bay), and Shark Beach (Nielsen Park). Feel free to join this project as a member if you are an existing participant of iNaturalist. See link to the iNaturalist Collection Project here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/marine-biodiversity-of-southern-sydney-harbour

Despite the importance of these three recreational zones in southern Sydney Harbour, there is a paucity of baseline data regarding their resident marine fauna. Indeed, based on historical records documented on Atlas of Living of Australia (https://www.ala.org.au/), there are approximately 500 fish records from all three sites combined across a 150-year period (1868- 2021), compared to approximately 40,000 records within the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve just outside of Sydney Harbour since declaring it a No Take Aquatic Reserve in 2002. At least that was the case when I surveyed the databases last year, and that’s just accounting for the fishes. We really do need your help to balance the record books!

Despite a paucity of biological survey data at these three recreational zones, we suspect that they are important refuges for threatened species in southern Sydney Harbour, including fishes in the Syngnathidae family (seahorses, pipefishes, pipehorses, and seadragons), the protected Eastern Blue Groper (Achoerodus viridis) and Eastern Blue Devil (Paraplesiops bleekeri), and range-restricted species, such as the Red-fingered Anglerfish (Porophryne erythrodactylus). As one obvious example, an endangered seahorse species White’s Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei)that has been the focus of recent habitat recovery initiatives in Sydney Harbour (i.e., Seahorse Hotels) is a known resident of these sites, predominantly found on man-made swimming nets such as those deployed at Shark Beach and Parsley Bay. The nets at Parsley Bay are regularly monitored by the local council to enable best practices for their maintenance and better understand their role in supporting seahorse populations.

Natural history fish collections from the Australian Museum, largely restricted to the mid-1970’s, not only support these locations as refuges for threatened species, but additionally as an “end point” for newly settled tropical fishes that continue to extend their native range poleward as our oceans warm. And again, that just covers the fish! There is so much more to discover when photographing the spineless animals (think nudibranchs, echinoderms, and endangered species such as the Cauliflower Soft Coral Dendronephthya australis) and plant-based organisms (think of our disappearing Posidonia seagrass meadows).

Your new snorkel or SCUBA observations captured between October 15, 2022 and April 15, 2023 uploaded to iNaturalist will be used to ground truth and complement monthly environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys at each of the three sites with our research partner Dr Shaun Wilkinson in New Zealand, founder of Wilderlab (https://www.wilderlab.co.nz/), and habitat restoration with Dr David Harasti (NSW DPI - https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/about-us/research-development/staff/staff-profiles/david-harasti), respectively. Future journal posts will discuss the powers of eDNA to regularly monitor microbes and invasive species at the base of the food web to socio-economically important megafauna. Indeed, I will be sharing preliminary results on eDNA detections at these sites as they are processed. Similarly, more about assessing the suitability of these sites for habitat restoration using seahorse hotels will be published in future journal posts.

The bottom line is that we need your help!!! Us scientists cannot survey these sites at the rate that keen and informed citizens like yourselves do, nor do we notice or document everything that is out there. We’d love to work WITH you. This includes new observations and old ones. For instance, I am sure that there will be a treasure trove of biodiversity data already contained on your underwater cameras, external hard drives, and laptop computers, particularly if you are regulars at any of these sites. We are imploring you to raid the vaults and make these images publicly available on iNaturalist.

Why do we need you help with this project?
We are inviting all snorkelers and divers with underwater cameras to help increase our knowledge of the flora and fauna at these three sites. We at the Australian Museum simply do not have enough staff or resources to regularly monitor these sites with in-water surveys, and so we hope to borrow your expert eye and enthusiasm for underwater photography instead.

How can you participate?
For citizen science sightings to become accepted as records, encounters with an individual organism at a particular time and location are uploaded as images to iNaturalist, which are identified and/or validated by the community. Each observation can include multiple images of the same organism, but to increase the value of your observations, please indicate the spatial accuracy and include additional comments if applicable. Notably, observations of rare species may be used to assist environmental review and conservation planning efforts.

Given that ours is a “Collection Project”, any photo of any organism that falls within the bounding boxes I created for each site or similarly assigned to the Places “Parsley Bay, Vaucluse, NSW”, “Camp Cove, Watsons Bay, NSW” (be careful, there are a few similarly named Places for this one), or “Shark Beach, Vaucluse, NSW” (more about the delay on surveys at this site below) will be captured in our Project and be eligible for the contests (see below).

As always, please be respectful and kind to the sensitive marine environment. We want the flora and fauna that you document to last forever.

Keep an eye out for organised Bioblitz events at Parsley Bay in Vaucluse later in the year so that we can meet you in person! This site has recently come under scrutiny as part of a planned mega-construction project, and so recording all plants and animals present here is particularly critical to saving our precious recreational zone.

What are the contest ground rules?
Small prizes will be awarded to top users at each of the three sites in the categories below on or after April 15, 2023. This includes gift vouchers from local dive providers (PRODIVE Alexandria, Dive Centre Bondi, Sydney Dive Charters) or restaurants (Clove Lane in Randwick).

Archival Photos: eligibility based on photos taken prior to June 1, 2022. This category is particularly well suited to avid snorkelers, SCUBA divers, and underwater photographers who regularly visit one or all three of the sites in southern Sydney Harbour.

*New Photo Submissions: eligibility based on photos taken between October 15, 2022 and April 15, 2023. This category is well suited to anyone with a keen eye and underwater camera!

*Note that the contest for “New Photo Submissions” at Shark Beach will be deferred to only start when it reopens to the public in May 2023 due to lack of access.

Do you have what it takes to win photo observation of the month?
Each month, starting in November 2022, we will select the most "faved" observation to explore and highlight. That participant will receive a voucher to purchase swag at the Australian Museum gift shop. You could be a winner if you submit your discoveries!

Top five reasons to join iNaturalist
1) It’s free.
2) Provides a platform for photo storage and can serve as a virtual dive log.
3) You can choose to copyright protect your photo submissions (or not).
4) State of the art artificial intelligence and experts in the online community can help with identification.
5) You can contribute in a significant way to the scientific aims in this project.

This journal post was written by Australasian Fishes member Joey DiBattista.