Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone is one of the largest and deepest in the world. To justify, research and manage our EEZ, CSIRO operates the Marine National Facility for Australia’s national benefit. Off eastern Australia, the ORV Franklin (1985-2002); RV Southern Surveyor (2003-2013) and now RV Investigator have explored examined the oceanographic impacts of the East Australian Current, from Brisbane to Hobart, adjacent to most of Australia’s increasingly urbanised and coastal population.
Earlier MNF voyages in 1990s discovered the cause and source of red tides produced by Noctiluca – a reddish bloom that was thought to be due to sewage effluent. In the mid 2000s, a series of voyages explored the distributions of krill and gelatinous zooplankton (salps) that feed coastal fisheries. This perspective established how zooplankton feed the fish diversity of the valuable Great Southern Reef; and therefore supported the recreational fishery associated with NSW’s offshore artificial reef program.
A specific RV Investigator voyage in 2017 resolved the enigma of why anticyclonic eddies – thought to be oceanographic deserts – drove a more productive fishery compared to the greener and more productive cyclonic eddies. Other serendipitous MNF voyages investigated the fisheries potential of small frontal billows along the coastal side of the East Australian Current (EAC) and established that these small eddies may provide an offshore nursery ground for commercially important species. These data underpinned the discovery of onshore winds and EAC influencing estuarine fisheries, which established the first signal of fisheries forecasting (recruitment) for south-eastern Australia.
The MNF has enabled international collaborations and training of many thoughtful and numerate marine scientists, who are now located in government, industry and overseas, as we wrestle with increasing urbanisation and global warming.