A new project led by the Western Australian Museum and partnered by Woodside Energy, is set to extensively add to our understanding of the marine biodiversity of Australia’s remote north-west.

The Marine Life of North Western Australia Project has a high likelihood of discovering species in the region for the first time and is a collaborative work involving the WA Museum along with four other Australian museums in a three-year research program.

The project will collect data on the worms, molluscs, crustaceans, fish, corals, soft corals, echinoderms and marine algae and seagrasses from inshore region and the continental shelf coral atolls with the results forming part of the Woodside Kimberley Collection.

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australian Museum and Queensland Museum will combine their information from existing collections and marine databases and add it to data collected from upcoming surveys of the Kimberley region and the WA Museum’s existing collection.

Acting chief executive officer of the WA Museum Diana Jones said the project will be significant for the nation’s diversity.

“The information we have on the marine life of the North-West region is very broad.  We have good research on the fish species from the area but there is limited data on the sea grass, coral and sponges and up until now we have no samples of the soft corals of the Kimberley,” Ms Jones said.

“This project is sure to find many new species from a range of marine life. It will provide vital information on the Kimberley coast and assist in decision-making that affects the sustainable future of the region,” Ms Jones said.

The marine life of the Kimberley coast is relatively unknown. With a rugged coastline stretching 15,000km, huge tidal changes and more than 2,500 islands off shore research into the region’s biodiversity has been limited to a handful of targeted surveys.

While the information gathered has provided a wealth of information to Australian researchers it does not represent a true measure of the marine biodiversity believed to be in the region.

The research team, which departed today, includes staff from the Queensland Museum, James Cook University and the Western Australian Herbarium.

In addition to the collections and survey data, oceanographic data will also be included which will allow the researchers to examine the various environmental, biogeographical and taxonomic aspects of the Kimberley region.

Dr Vanessa Guthrie, Vice President of Sustainable Development at Woodside said the addition to the Woodside Kimberley Collection was an important next step in researching Western Australia’s marine life.

“The Woodside Dampier Archipelago Collection, a partnership between Woodside and the Museum for over 10 years was highly successful with4,500 species recorded, many new to science,” Dr Guthrie said.

“Through the Woodside Kimberley Collection we will now have substantially more information on the marine biodiversity of one of the most remote areas of our coastline. This helps the West Australian community, make better decisions about managing our marine resources.”

The research gathered from the Kimberley survey will provide the museums with finer-scale information on how the marine animals live and relate to their habitat.

The researchers are expecting to find new and rare species and a new range of distribution.

“We are quietly confident we are going to find species of marine life that are known in the Pacific region but have never been recorded in WA before,” Ms Jones said.

The Marine Life of North Western Australia project will run from October 2009 until late 2011.

Media contact:
Renae Woodhams
Manager, Media and Communications
Western Australian Museum
Tel: +61 [0]8 9212 3860
Mob: 0439 948 779