MAY 2025
White Rock on the Road
Over the past three weeks, White Rock has hit the road with sold-out screenings, passionate conversations and fresh urchin feasts. The Em-Urchin-cy Tour kicked off with a packed premiere at Hobart’s State Cinema. From there, the tour hit the east coast with events in Bendalong, Bawley Point, Melbourne, Torquay, Warrnambool, Narooma, Merimbula, Byron Bay and Manly.
Urchin spread at Manly screening event.Each location brought something different to the table, literally. Local chefs worked their magic with fresh roe to serve up everything from creamy pasta and urchin devilled eggs to urchin popcorn and even uni gelato. Post-film panel discussions sparked insightful and often moving dialogue. Audiences engaged deeply with the challenges and solutions around the longspined urchin crisis, with strong local representation from scientists, fishers, Traditional Owners, educators and ocean advocates.
Uncle Wally Stewart and Sam Elsom at the Byron Bay Event.The response has been incredible: we’ve now gathered almost 2000 survey responses from attendees, with overwhelming support for the proposed Centro Task Force, a $55 million coordinated strategy to restore kelp forests and build a viable urchin industry.
Massive thanks to our incredible collaborators and local partners, especially the chefs, musicians, MCs, panelists and urchin supplier Ryan Morris - who brought their own flavour and energy to each event. We also want to extend a huge thank you to the supporters who have made this tour and our ongoing impact possible by supporting our impact campaign.
Hein Cooper bringing the energy with an incredible live set at the Bawley Point screening at Kioloa Campus. We’re now shifting gears into the next phase of the White Rock impact campaign, focused on supporting community-led screenings and getting this important story into schools across the country. If you’re keen to run a screening or be one of the first to access the schools kit, please register your interest.
To make this next chapter possible, we’re inviting supporters to help grow the movement. By donating to our impact campaign, your support will help us facilitate community screening events across the country, equip teachers with engaging educational resources, elevate sustainable seafood through creative collaborations and keep the pressure on policymakers to fund coordinated action.
Brewed for Sea Country: The Story Behind 'Uni'
What if a beer could spark meaningful conversations about ecology, culture, and climate change? That’s exactly the idea behind Uni - a bold, briny, lemon myrtle-infused beer brewed by Sailors Grave in partnership with the Great Southern Reef Foundation.
The Uni beer is also a continuation of a creative partnership with Budawang Elder Uncle Noel and Cultural Educator Trish Butler of Nura Gunyu. The brew combines locally harvested longspined sea urchin with lemon myrtle harvested from Noel and Trish's property.
For them, the Uni beer collaboration is part of a much deeper story—one of cultural continuity, environmental care, and restoring connection to Country, including Sea Country.
Through their cultural education work, the Butlers use native foods and plants to teach people how to reconnect with place. “If Australians understood the value of our own plants - whether for food, medicine, or ceremony, maybe more people would learn to really care for this Country,” Noel says. [Read more]
To continue the conversation, Sailors Grave is hosting a special event at their Dune Town brewery this coming Saturday, 17th May. The evening will feature a screening of White Rock, followed by an expert Q&A panel discussion, sea urchin tastings, and of course, plenty of Uni on tap. Get tickets here.
SA's Unprecedented Marine Mortality Event
An unprecedented algal bloom is sweeping across South Australia's coast—causing mass deaths of sharks, seadragons, and other marine life. Over the past couple of months, the mortalities being recorded in SA have matched the distribution of oceanic chlorophyll content in bloom-impacted areas.
Chlorophyll-a concentration and ocean surface currents on 26th March, 9th April and 9 May 2025 across South Australia, derived from satellite remote sensing and HF radar data. Data and imagery sourced from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS), accessed via OceanCurrent.
The consequences are becoming increasingly visible - dead fish washing ashore, discoloured sea foam irritating beachgoers, and marine species vanishing from their usual habitats. Divers have reported scenes of ecological collapse at popular sites, while the loss of breeding-age seadragons, sharks, and other iconic species signals long-term damage that may take years to understand or recover from.
One of many—Port Jackson Sharks as well as several other shark species have been found washed ashore during the bloom event. Image: Lochie Cameron
This new article breaks down what we know so far about the bloom’s causes, its ecological toll, and what’s being done to monitor it. It also shows how citizen scientists, divers, beachcombers, surfers, and fishers - are playing a crucial role in documenting this environmental crisis. If you’re near the water, your observations matter. Read on to learn more and find out how you can help.
Australia’s Overlooked Marine Species at Risk
Australian marine ecosystems, including the vast life-rich Great Southern Reef, are renowned for their diversity. Yet many species critical to these environments remain significantly undervalued and understudied, largely due to persistent gaps in monitoring and conservation assessments.
A new study led by Olivia Johnson from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) highlights the scale of the problem.
The Tasmanian endemic Lessonia corrugata (strap weed) is one species of serious concern, highlighted by the paper. Image: Hunter Forbes.
The research reveals alarming gaps in conservation data for Australia’s marine species, including habitat-forming seaweeds and invertebrates. Highlighting critical risks to the Great Southern Reef, the study calls for urgent investment in monitoring, updated IUCN assessments, and greater protection for undervalued and understudied species. Find out more in this new article.
more gsr news
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APRIL 2025
White Rock hits the road! With a sold-out Hobart launch, our Em-urchin-cy Tour is officially underway. Dive into updates on school resources, lobster recovery, sea lion science, climate-fuelled fish kills, and citizen-powered species tracking. Plus, new research reveals not all reef species are heading south. Let’s get into it.
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FEBRUARY 2025
Welcome to the February 2025 Newsletter. Packed with exciting updates, inspiring stories, and opportunities to get involved, this edition has something for everyone passionate about the Great Southern Reef.
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January 2025 news
Packed with exciting updates, inspiring stories, and opportunities to get involved, this edition has something for everyone passionate about the Great Southern Reef.
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december 2024
This issue includes an exclusive look at our collaboration with artist Amok Island, spotlighting a spectacular limited edition print featuring iconic GSR species.
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november 2024
In this issue, we celebrate the long-awaited launch of WA’s South Coast Marine Park, share important updates on the South-east Marine Park Draft Management Plan, and dive into research exploring cancer-fighting compounds in temperate sponges.
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October 2024
In this issue, we celebrate the launch of our new Teacher’s Guide for Ocean Literacy, share major milestones from Project Restore, and highlight recent developments in kelp restoration across Australia.
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september 2024
This month, we're offering a sneak peek into one of the Great Southern Reef’s most unique environments - Bathurst Channel. Plus and an exciting opportunity for teachers to trial some new school resources.
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august 2024
Exciting updates from from the final days of filming our urchin documentary White Rock, to the latest research, sealion mounted camera footage and insights from our GSR Research Partnership meeting in Hobart.
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july 2024
This month we are thrilled to share with you Sea Country stories, spider crab science, monitoring updates plus a sneak peek of our new documentary White Rock.
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june 2024
In this month's issue and to celebrate the arrival of the Southern Right whales, we're thrilled to announce the release of our new film, Eye to Eye.
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may 2024
In this issue, we explore some urgent challenges facing the GSR as well as highlight promising developments and opportunities to get actively involved in caring for our precious kelp forests.
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The longspined sea urchin is native to New South Wales and eastern Victoria. But in 1978 the first animal was detected in Tasmania where it has since increased dramatically in numbers. The urchin arrived in Tasmania due to changes in ocean climate and ocean current conditions, specifically an increase in strength of the East Australian Current.
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White Rock is a 45-minute documentary uncovering an overlooked impact of the climate crisis: the explosion of longspined sea urchins which are devastating Australia's kelp forests. With stunning visuals and impactful storytelling, the film captures the urgent threat to these ecosystems and presents tangible solutions to save them.
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Looking to deepen your knowledge on the rich biodiversity found in Australia's temperate reefs? This space is designed for you.
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Australian researchers are working at the global forefront of marine habitat restoration, with projects underway in every state along the Great Southern Reef. Habitat restoration is a resource intensive exercise used as a last resort for areas where vital habitats have been lost or are in decline and natural recovery is not occurring. Currently there are active restoration projects on the GSR working to restore seaweeds, seagrasses, and oyster reefs.
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Every month, we feature a creator from around the Great Southern Reef (GSR), showcasing their unique connection, creative expression, and passion for this extraordinary marine ecosystem. Through photography, art, storytelling, and film, these creators highlight the reef’s beauty, biodiversity, and the critical challenges it faces.
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What is the Great Southern Reef? What is unique about it? and how is climate change affecting it? Find out answers to these questions and more in our FAQ page.
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Associate Professor Ling has been instrumental in discovering the complex factors contributing to the urchin problem, casting new light on how climate change, predatory interactions, and ecological balance play into the crisis.
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The Great Southern Reef Research Partnership is a collaboration between universities, management agencies, and NGOs from across Australia, is taking a whole-of-system approach to safeguard the critical functions, fisheries, and biodiversity of the Great Southern Reef.
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The Great Southern Reef Foundation has partnered with Fremantle-based multidisciplinary artist Amok Island to create a stunning limited edition print, Iconic Species of the Great Southern Reef. This artwork showcases 18 unique species found along this extraordinary marine ecosystem.
