Rowley Shoals Environmental Survey 2013, WESTERN AUSTRALIA (WEL)

The coral and fish communities at the AIMS Long Term Monitoring (LTM) sites at Mermaid, Clerke and Imperiuse reefs were re-surveyed, following periodic surveys since 1994. To inform the design of future monitoring programs, communities at different habitats at the Rowley Shoals were surveyed at Clerke and Mermaid Reefs. In particular, coral and fish communities were surveyed at the reef slope in 9m, 6m, 3m and reef flat habitats, and at the base and top of three replicate bombies within the lagoon and false lagoon (Clerke Reef only). Additionally, Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVS - single)) were deployed at the reef slope at 9m and 3m, and at the bombie habitats within the lagoon, to investigate their use as a remote monitoring method for certain fish and shark populations. Several coral species were also sampled opportunistically to investigate whether their participation in the predicted mass spawning at the end of October differs from that documented previously at Scott Reef, and samples of the dominant brooding coral Isopora brueggemanni were collected to add existing samples of several species from Scott Reef and the Rowley Shoals for genetic analyses, when funding becomes available.
This project is a co-investment between Woodside Petroleum Limited (WEL) and AIMS, in order to build scientific knowledge at the Rowley Shoals and was undertaken between 11th October - 2 December 2013.