Media releases

Discover some of the Flagship’s other research achievements and outcomes through these links to media releases, podcasts, vodcasts and other material:

• World interest in Australian fishery impact test: An Australian method for assessing the environmental impact of marine fisheries has caught the eye of fishery management agencies worldwide (and podcast Net profits: the challenge of managing the world's fisheries).
• Finding the ASX200 for marine ecosystems: Researchers are building the environmental equivalent of the ASX200 as a means of monitoring the health of Australian marine ecosystems.
• Study predicts seabed response to climate change: CSIRO scientists produced the first preliminary predictions of the potential impact of climate change on the Australian seabed (and podcast Model predicts seafloor at risk by climate change).
• New manufacturing opportunities –  sensors to protect marine and freshwater ecosystems: An ambitious new research collaboration designed to track the health of Australia’s marine and freshwater ecosystems was launched.
• Surf’s up: new technology to forecast waves and currents podcast: New research into a laptop-based software system capable of interpreting near-shore waves from radar, and providing several-day wave and current forecasts, could soon be making our beaches safer and assisting the Royal Australian Navy with amphibious landings.
• Turning the ‘green tide’ in the Yellow Sea [Word 39KB]: Massive algal blooms in the Yellow Sea in June 2008 and 2009 were caused by increased coastal aquaculture activity 180 kilometres away and threaten to potentially become an annual event, Chinese and Australian researchers have found.
• Helping Albacore tuna come out of the can: Scientists are studying the earbones and organs of more than 2000 albacore tuna to better understand the growth, age and breeding patterns of this increasingly important species.
• Vessel to open up oceans of research opportunities: Australia’s ocean climate and geoscience research capability will more than double when its latest ocean-going research vessel joins the national fleet in 2012 (and vodcast Dr Megan Clark: Australia's future research vessel).
• Highest-ever winter water temperatures recorded: Tasmania’s east coast recorded its highest-ever winter water temperatures of more than 13^oC – up to 1.5^oC above normal – due to a strengthening of an ocean current originating north of Australia.
• Seeing below the surface: Dr Kate Wilson discusses the importance of understanding oceans and why more research is needed to support ocean science.
• Global curbs on overfishing are beginning to work: Scientists have joined forces in a groundbreaking assessment of the status of marine fisheries and ecosystems (and podcast Gone fishing - assessing marine ecosystems).
• Science adopts a new definition of seawater: The world’s peak ocean science body has adopted a new definition of seawater developed by Australian, German and US scientists to make climate projections more accurate (and podcast Science adopts a new definition of seawater).
• Some Ningaloo Reef fish are ‘homebodies’: New research shows that some fish species in Western Australia’s Ningaloo Marine Park spend most of their time close to home, staying on the reef rather than travelling significant distances, as was previously thought (and podcast Stay-at-home fish prefer reef life).
• Making ocean life count podcast: CSIRO statisticians and marine researchers are working to understand marine ecological processes in a critical range of Australia's continental slope.
• Dinner for tuna: tracking tuna dining habits across the Indian Ocean [external link]: Southern Bluefin Tuna can’t even have a quiet snack without CSIRO researchers knowing.
• Probing the depths while staying high and dry podcast: CSIRO is developing an airborne, remote-sensing instrument that can ‘see’ beneath water, even when the water is cloudy, by the use of optical and acoustic technologies.
• Discussions held over Ningaloo research [external link]: Marine science experts gathered in Exmouth for the third annual Ningaloo Research Symposium (WA Department of Environment and the Western Australian Marine Science Institution).
• $120m for new Marine Research Vessel: The Federal Budget delivered $120 million in funds for a new “blue-water” marine Research Vessel to replace the Southern Surveyor.
• $30m for Atlas of Living Australia: The announcement of a
  $30 million increase in funding for the Atlas of Living Australia
  ($10 million in 2009-10) has been welcomed by the CSIRO as an important foundational step in the deeper understanding of national biodiversity.
• We will soon be listening for sharks along the WA coast [external link]: The Western Australian Government provided additional funding for monitoring the occurrence of “tagged” white (pointer) sharks off metropolitan Perth beaches (WA Fisheries).
• ‘Ocean glider’ home after two-month voyage: Scientists are celebrating the first successful deployment and retrieval in Australia of a remotely controlled, deep ocean-going robotic submarine destined to play a central role in measuring changes in two of Australia’s most influential ocean currents.
• Students lead discussions on Ningaloo [external link]: The spotlight was on students from Western Australian universities when they attended a forum to discuss their research into Ningaloo Marine Park and its surrounding areas (WA Department of Environment and the Western Australian Marine Science Institution).
• $20 million for climate change in the Pacific [external link]: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Stephen Smith, and Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, announced $20 million to help Australia’s neighbours in the Pacific and East Timor better understand how climate change will impact on them (AusAID, Department of Climate Change, Bureau of Meteorology).
• Setting direction for $38B marine industry [external link]: Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, launched the first comprehensive strategy for Australia's $38 billion marine industry sector (Oceans Policy Science Advisory Group).
• Rising sea levels set to have major impacts around the world [external link]: Even the lower ranges of the plausible sea level rise are likely to hit low lying countries hard (University of Copenhagen).
• CSIRO research is in the zone in Moreton Bay: Preliminary research has confirmed that fish and crabs in existing protected ‘green zones’ in Moreton Bay are both bigger and more abundant than those outside the zones.
• The Australian Climate Change Science Program: 20 years on podcast: Climate change and its future effects have led to a lot recent discussion, but it’s actually something the Australian Climate Change Science Program has been investigating for 20 years.
• Climate change impacting on the Southern Ocean podcast: The Southern Ocean is changing, and evidence shows that around the Antarctic, the Southern Ocean is warming at a faster rate than the global ocean average.
• Ocean observations reap climate science rewards: Long-term observations of the oceans around Australia are providing the nation’s climate scientists with significant benchmarks for seasonal forecasts and monitoring future climate change.
• Student’s snazzy sub sampler may lead to patent: A summer scholarship student has developed an automated water sampler of such high quality it is now being considered for a provisional patent.