Media Report

PS News

03 December 2013

Surveys conducted during this year’s turtle nesting season are expected to show if the population of green turtles is bouncing back nearly three years after cyclone Yasi destroyed much of their food supply.

Species conservation manager at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Mark Read said November and December marked the peak period in the Great Barrier Reef when female turtles lay their eggs on a beach in the region where they were born. Read more

ABC News

02 December 2013

Researchers on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland are freezing coral sperm to stop some of the animal species from becoming extinct.

Over the past 30 years, nearly half the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has disappeared and researchers are concerned some of the animal species could soon be wiped out. Read more

ABC News

20 November 2013

The Queensland Government has announced the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve and the Wenlock River in Cape York will be protected from open-cut and strip mining.

The area is the first to be named a "strategic environmental area" under the Regional Planning Interests Bill to go before Parliament today. Read more

James Cook University researchers were among the Queensland scientists who worked with German company EOMAP for the ambitious project of mapping out 19,000sq km of coral reefs. Read more

And this week it's expected to go off, as coral spawning season gets going from Friday. Read more

ABC News

17 November 2013

The Federal Government has axed plans to dump dredge spoils into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area off Gladstone in central Queensland.

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has ordered the Queensland Government and the Gladstone Ports Corporation to consider only onshore dumping of dredge spoils from the construction of a proposed $400 million second sea lane. Read more

Science World Report

15 November 2013

Live corals are the most important contributors to the structure of the saltwater reef in nature as well as in reef aquariums. Corals, sponges and seaweeds cover most of the surface of coral reefs and make up the most diverse range of all marine ecosystems, as well as account for perhaps one quarter of all ocean species found in reefs.

NERC Science of the Environment

15 November 2013

When tropical forests are cleared, they can take a century or more to re-absorb the carbon they once held, according to a new study. But their biodiversity is even slower to recover, and some species may never return.