News Release September 15th, 2009
Underwater research video highlights marine park diversity
The survey is part of the state wide marine park
monitoring program, that’s been undertaken across
all six of the marine parks in NSW
Underwater video cameras have been used to undertake a comprehensive survey of the fish-life in the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park.
Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park researcher David Harasti said over the past few weeks video cameras had been dropped to depths of 20 to 40 metres.
“The video cameras were submerged for a 30 minute period with a bait pole attached and all species of fish recorded and counted. These cameras are commonly referred to as BRUVS which is short for Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations.
“This survey is part of the state wide marine park monitoring program, that’s been undertaken across all six of the marine parks in NSW.
“We’ve just finished surveying over 100 sites in this marine park. We’ll now have 50 hours of video footage to analyse and we’re really excited about what we’ll see.”
Mr Harasti said so far snapper, wrasse, kingfish, moray eels, Port Jackson sharks and several grey nurse sharks had been recorded.
“The data collected from these video surveys will help us understand how the marine park zones are influencing fish abundance and distribution. Sites are selected on similar reef areas in different zones as well as sites outside the park,” he said.
Mr Harasti said the project builds on previous BRUVS surveys conducted in the marine park in conjunction with the University of Newcastle and will be continued as a key part of the marine park monitoring program.
“Marine science is a long term investment and the techniques we are using reliably identify changes to fish species composition and total numbers over time. Together with our underwater visual census research program the data will greatly assist future management of the marine park,” Mr Harasti said.
Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park extends from Cape Hawke Surf Life Saving Club near Forster south to Birubi Beach Life Saving Club at the northern end of Stockton Beach and includes offshore waters to the 3 nautical mile limit of state waters.
The park covers an area of approximately 98 000 hectares.
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