Better understanding of broad-scale movement patterns of marine animals along the Australian east coast is underway, made possible with the enhancement of IMOS’ national animal tracking infrastructure in Queensland.
Through a strong alliance with multiple collaborators, the Qld IMOS Acoustic Telemetry Array Project maintains 130 acoustic receiver stations and has supported existing arrays, resulting in 345 stations now spanning 16.7 degrees of latitude (near Raine Island to NSW border).
Since 2020, the project’s extensive array coverage has increased detections of priority species moving through Queensland coastal waters, with more than 2.09 million detections. Project members have tagged 812 animals, including nine priority species of sharks relevant to bather safety, species of conservation interest, and important fishery species. Primarily 10-year tags have been fitted to these animals, contributing important information on regional connectivity along the entire east coast and crossing state boundaries, critical for spatial management of priority marine species and ecosystems.
By better understanding the extent and timing of movements of mobile species, the project aims to address questions such as how often sharks visit Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) Shark Control Program monitored beaches, identify connectivity and species stock structure to apply to fisheries and conservation management, cross-jurisdictional boundary movements, and whether environmental conditions may alter movement patterns or distribution of species.
Without such an extensive regional network, many movements would remain undetected, and the array’s coverage has identified movements of some species greater than previously recorded on the east coast of Australia (e.g. bull sharks).
The array supports or enhances projects with numerous collaborators, including QDAF Shark Control Program, QDAF Fish Aggregation Devices Program, James Cook University, Department of Environment and Science, Queensland, Biopixel Oceans Foundation, Parks Australia, University of the Sunshine Coast, and four student projects.
The Qld IMOS Acoustic Telemetry Array Project is funded by the Department of Environment and Science, Queensland through the Research Infrastructure Co-Investment Fund (RICF), and is operated by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
Written by Leanne Currey-Randall