IMOS - AUV SIRIUS CAMPAIGN: TASMANIA, JUNE 2010

Southern and Eastern Tasmania (Barrett, Johnson): There are two elements to the IMOS AUV Facility activities in Tasmania, including sustained observation of the impacts of climate change on key reef species and understanding meso‐ and large‐scale physics as drivers of reef community structure and dynamics.  The first AUV deployments associated with the new program of sustained observing supported through the EIF extension program were completed during 12 days of survey work in June 2010.  Deployments were centered on coastal reefs in eastern Tasmania adjacent to the Freycinet Peninsula, extending from The Nuggets into the Freycinet MPA, and at sites along the Tasman Peninsula as well as in the South extending from coastal reefs at The Friars (SE Bruny Island) to the shelf break within the Huon MPA.  A number of dives within the Freycinet MPA were located over sites surveyed in 2008 and 2009 providing the first opportunity to revisit a survey over a long time frame.