october 2026
Monthly Reef Update
This month’s Great Southern Reef update brings together Sea Country stories, spring fieldwork and a longer view of how our reefs are changing. Thank you for supporting the science, storytelling and education that help people connect with and care for the Great Southern Reef.
Mamang Maambakoort Marine Park: caring for Goreng Sea Country
Wagyl Kaip Southern Noongar priorities are guiding early research and monitoring in Mamang Maambakoort Marine Park, on Goreng Country, WA. Culturally important species, estuary health and opportunities for Noongar involvement are helping set the direction.
A recent field trip brought Noongar joint management representatives and DBCA staff together to survey seaweed communities and fish. When surveys recorded unexpectedly high numbers of blue groper, the team added further underwater camera deployments to better document this culturally important species.
Thousands of shark and ray deaths documented in South Australia
A new report led by marine ecologist and citizen science project manager Janine Baker documents at least 8,250 shark and ray deaths in South Australian waters affected by the harmful algal bloom. The recorded toll is a conservative minimum, with deaths offshore and along remote coastlines likely to have gone unrecorded.
Damaged sea floor habitats and reduced food supplies for benthic sharks and rays add to concerns about surviving animals. The extent of population declines and the time needed for recovery remain uncertain. Janine’s report highlights the need for sustained population monitoring, habitat and species conservation assessments, and research into the health of surviving sharks and rays.
The full report is expected to be online later this week. We’ll share it once released.
Tracking spring kelp growth across the Great Southern Reef
Spring fieldwork is well underway as researchers examine possible changes in kelp growth rates across the Great Southern Reef. GSR Research Partnership members are measuring growth in autumn, spring and summer to capture seasonal patterns.
Spring is a peak growth period for kelp. At some locations, average growth reaches 6 grams of new biomass per individual kelp each day, measured as wet weight. Capturing this peak helps researchers understand seasonal patterns in kelp production.
Early spring brought windy conditions, but field teams enjoyed good underwater visibility while establishing study sites in Tasmania, New South Wales and Western Australia. After allowing a few weeks for growth, teams are now returning to measure how much the kelp has grown.
Images & Report by Hunter ForbesRemembering Aunty Patsy Cameron
We pay tribute to Aunty Patsy Cameron AO, a Tasmanian Aboriginal Elder and author who passed away in September. Her books, including Grease and Ochre, Sea Country and In the Kelp Forest, shared Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and connections to Country with people of all ages.
GSRF cofounder and chair, Dr. Scott Bennett reflected on her contribution:
“Aunty Patsy was a trans-disciplinary researcher, educator and thought leader. Through her writing she awoke us to cultural importance of Sea Country for Tasmanian Aboriginal women and the languages used by Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples to describe our local marine life. Her generosity sharing this with the Tasmanian public has been transformational.”
We extend our condolences to Aunty Patsy’s family, friends and community.
The Long View: studying a connected reef
Understanding the Great Southern Reef, spanning more than 8,000 kilometres, takes research that connects regions, disciplines and decades of evidence.
Support from The Ian Potter Foundation made it possible to establish the Great Southern Reef Research Partnership. It brings together universities, research programmes, management agencies and non-government organisations to study the reef as one connected system. Their work connects data collection and interpretation with management and community stewardship.
Earlier this month, The Ian Potter Foundation’s Board visited IMAS to learn about the partnership’s progress. We shared this short film during their visit. Now you can watch The Long View, exploring the reef’s significance, the pressures reshaping it and what the partnership has achieved so far, alongside the need for integrated, long-term monitoring.
Golden kelp returns to Derwent Estuary reefs
Golden kelp is growing on parts of Tasmania’s Derwent Estuary reefs where dense worm mats once covered the rock. Comparing surveys from 2010 and 2024, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) researchers found that kelp had spread further upstream and into deeper water.
The change surprised Associate Professor Neville Barrett, who had expected the degraded conditions to persist. The surveys also recorded declines in some fish and increases in introduced species, placing kelp’s return within a mixed picture for the estuary.
The tourism cost of losing giant kelp forests
Thirty years of records from Eaglehawk Dive Centre show how the loss of giant kelp forests changed tourism on the Tasman Peninsula in southeast Tasmania.
The study, co-led by Scott Bennett and Nicole Currie from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, analysed trip logs from 1991 to 2021. Giant kelp diving peaked in 2010, then declined following marine heatwaves. By 2017, the dive centre had stopped these trips as local giant kelp forests disappeared.
As remaining forests retreated south, the operator had to travel further to chase the remnant stands. Using standardised prices and costs, researchers estimated that trips to the furthest site left about 15% less income after trip costs than trips to the nearest site. Trips to other attractions continued.
Published in Annals of Botany, the research details this local economic cost of losing kelp forests on the Great Southern Reef. It also shows how tourism operators’ records can complement scientific monitoring by indicating where giant kelp forests remain, despite not directly measuring forest condition.
“The tourism value of kelp forests often goes unmeasured. These records show how losing giant kelp changed a local business and took away an experience that brought people to the Tasman Peninsula.”
Scott Bennett
Dense groups of periwinkles can create bare patches within kelp beds. New research led by Professor Scott Ling at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) shows how this often overlooked snail forms small areas of overgrazed reef, dubbed “peri-barrens”, in eastern Tasmania.
tiny unsung snail creates ‘mini-barrens’
Seaweeds returned where researchers excluded the snails. Commercial fishers also harvested large periwinkles from the study site during the experiment. By the follow-up survey, 16 months after the initial observations, kelp beds had re-established.
Great Southern Reef work recognised in engagement awards
Congratulations to Great Southern Reef Research Partnership members Associate Professor Prue Francis and Professor Adriana Vergés, whose work features among the finalists for the 2026 Engagement Australia Excellence Awards.
Adriana Vergés, from UNSW, is a finalist for Outstanding Leadership in Engagement. Her nomination recognises the partnerships she has built with First Nations communities, government, industry and conservation organisations to restore marine ecosystems and support community stewardship.
Prue Francis (left) and Adriana Vergés (right) by James Sherwood, Bluebottle FilmsDeakin University’s Ocean Literacy program, involving Prue, GSRF ocean literacy specialist Dr Cátia Freitas and their collaborators, is a finalist for Excellence in Community Engagement. It supports primary school teachers with training and curriculum resources that help children connect with their local marine environments.
Winners will be announced on 11 November.
Reef Pods, five months on
Five months after deployment, marine life is colonising Project Restore’s Reef Pods in Sydney Harbour.
Encrusting algae, seaweeds and barnacles have begun covering the once-bare surfaces. Porcupinefish and red morwong have also been observed using the pods for rest and refuge.
The pods form part of Project Restore, a Sydney Institute of Marine Science initiative working to restore and reconnect habitats across the harbour. The project brings together seagrass restoration, kelp rehabilitation, Living Seawalls and fish habitat structures.
Photographs taken from different viewpoints.
Designed by Reef Design Lab, the pods replicate features of natural rocky reefs, including caves, overhangs and swim-through spaces. These provide shelter and surfaces for organisms to settle on in areas where rocky reef habitat has become degraded.
The team will continue monitoring how algae, invertebrate and fish communities develop on the pods over the coming months, comparing fish communities with nearby control sites to assess their contribution to habitat restoration.
GSR photo of the month
An unexpected resting spot for a Port Jackson shark.
Photographer Phillip Watson found this one sitting right on top of a fiddler ray in Port Phillip Bay, surrounded by seagrass.
Phillip has seen similar encounters before. In his experience, large female fiddler rays are often placid, while younger males tend to be more skittish.
more recent gsr stories
-
![]()
Citizen scientists in South Australia document world’s worst known seadragon losses
A new Dragon Search South Australia report has documented the loss of almost 1,700 seadragons during the state’s prolonged harmful algal bloom, alongside hundreds of pipefish and seahorses.
-
![]()
Marine heatwaves are lasting longer around Australia
A new study has mapped these changes across 60 marine bioregions using more than four decades of sea surface temperature data.
-
![]()
Tanitjari: A Warning from Sea Country
When H5 bird flu reached Bial-bial on the Limestone Coast, the deaths of Tanitjari carried a warning far beyond disease. Professor Irene Watson reflects on the relationship between Meintangk Bunganditj Peoples, Greater Crested Terns and ngamath, and what their threatened loss would mean for Country, culture and future generations.
Join Our Community
Sign up to our monthly newsletter to receive the latest updates from around the GSR.
explore further
-
![]()
more ARTICLES
A further look at timely reef topics, stories and insights from science, community voices and coastal experiences.
-
![]()
MARINE LIFE
Meet the species that live across Australia’s Great Southern Reef. Learn how fish, seaweeds, invertebrates, and marine mammals connect to healthy reef systems.
-
![]()
VIDEOS
Check out our short films and clips about temperate reef life, research in action, community work and reef encounters across southern Australia.
-
![]()
FEATURE CREATORS
Each month we feature a creator from across the Great Southern Reef sharing their connection to the coast through photography, art and storytelling.
-
![]()
WHITE ROCK
With stunning visuals and impactful storytelling, White Rock captures the urgent threat of longspined urchins to the GSR and presents tangible solutions to save them.
-
![]()
educator hub
Explore free Great Southern Reef teaching resources, classroom activities and curriculum-linked learning materials.
