Australia's marine environment is incredibly rich in biodiversity, and species are still being discovered. Conservation International is partnering with universities and peer agencies to build our understanding of the incredible species we share our waters with, informing management strategies to protect them.
Reefs: Conservation science on the Great Barrier Reef
Conservation International is working with Australian partners (including Leaf to Reef and Project Manta from University of Sunshine Coast, University of Queensland, the Biopixel Foundation and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation) on a range of conservation science activities on the Great Barrier Reef.
These activities include satellite tagging threatened shark and ray species (including whale sharks, oceanic manta rays and reef manta rays) to study their movement ecology within and beyond the Great Barrier Reef, to conducting biodiversity surveys on Lady Elliot Island. These surveys have discovered several reef fish species entirely new to science. The ongoing work is informing the best conservation management practices for this critical and beloved part of Australia.
Kelp Forest: A treasure of the Great Southern Reef
Together with the University of Western Australia (UWA) and a range of international partners, Conservation International's International Blue Carbon Institute is advancing research on kelp forests. Mysterious and beautiful, kelp forests are one of the lesser understood marine habitats. In Australia, we are aiming to uncover how kelp forests on the Great Southern Reef help mitigate climate change. These findings will be used to support conservation and restoration actions along the Great Southern Reef, which contains a major proportion of the world’s kelp forest biome and highly unique biodiversity: 70% of species found here are found nowhere else on Earth.
Sharks: Resharking our ocean
The StAR (or Stegostoma tigrinum Augmentation and Recovery) Project, initiated by Conservation International, is the world’s first rewilding initiative for an endangered shark species. The project was launched to recover populations of the beautiful and gentle leopard shark (also known as zebra shark in Australia).
Australia is home to the only healthy population of leopard sharks remaining on the planet. The StAR scientists have closely studied Aussie leopard sharks and apply this knowledge helping international populations recover.
Wild populations of Indo Pacific leopard sharks have been heavily hunted, including in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. But the declaration of a shark sanctuary in Raja Ampathas given the species a second chance. The StAR project is partnering with SEA LIFE Sydney and Sea World Gold Coast amongst other aquariums to breed captive leopard sharks and ship their eggs to Raja Ampat. The eggs are hatched and the pups nursed by trained ‘nannies’ from the local Papuan community. When the pups are about a meter long and deemed fit and healthy, they are released into the protected area and monitored with trackers in the wild.
As this project has gained momentum and international recognition, Conservation International and its 94 global partners on the StAR project (including University of Queensland, University of Sunshine Coast and Biopixel Foundation in Australia) have expanded to launch the ReShark initiative. Reshark serves as an umbrella for the StAR project and anticipated future “resharking” projects aimed at recovering threatened shark and ray species around the world.