This is the fifth episode in a series of five videos from the Seamount Corals Survey 2018, a month long voyage on CSIRO's Investigator to map and survey deep-sea coral reefs across an area of underwater seamounts south of Tasmania.
The voyage criss-crossed many seamounts in and near the Huon and Tasman Fracture marine parks, which are home to both pristine and previously fished coral reefs. These two parks are part of a larger network of Australian Marine Parks that surround Australia’s coastline and protect our offshore marine environment.
In a side-project, a team of observers recorded 42 seabird species and eight whale and dolphin species. They have one more set of data towards completing the first circum-Australia survey of marine birds and mammals.
The primary focus of the voyage has been collecting deep-tow camera footage of the Tasmanian deep seamounts. Several beam trawls and ocean profiler drops have also taken place. This means the vessel is not travelling very fast, or very far, and acts as a ‘magnet’ of sorts for many of the seabird species in the area who are used to fishing vessels working in the area, and come to check out the vessel hoping for a bite to eat.
On some days, the observers had four or five hundred birds sitting within 500 metres of the vessel: a once in a lifetime experience. Many of the observed species are threatened or endangered.
Read more about the voyage in The Conversation: theconversation.com/exploring...
Read the daily voyage blog: www.nespmarine.edu.au/seamoun...
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