Скачать или смотреть First look at deep rocky reefs in Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve

The Beagle CMR reaches across Bass Strait from south-east of Wilson’s Promontory to north-west of Flinders Island, covering almost 3000 square kilometres of seafloor in depths of 50─70 metres. It surrounds Tasmania's Kent Group Marine Reserve (Erith, Dover, and Deal islands), and the Hogan and Curtis Island groups.

Examples of its rocky reef habitats were surveyed during July as part of a pilot survey nested within a 10-day research voyage of the Australian Maritime College (AMC) research vessel Bluefin off Tasmania.

The voyage was part of national programs run by the Integrated Marine Observing System and the National Environmental Science Programme Marine Biodiversity Hub to survey and monitor seafloor life beyond diving depths in the waters of Australia’s continental shelf. It was supported by funding from Parks Australia which manages the Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network.
The sponge garden surveys were carried out using the IMOS autonomous underwater vehicle Sirius. Images taken by Sirius have just been released after a lengthy processing period, and reveal that while reef outcrops in this region are rare, they support an incredible density and diversity of sponge species.
An unusually large group of Port Jackson sharks was a surprise highlight for scientists.
Read more about the survey here: https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/news/po...