Standard Presentation Australian Marine Sciences Association 2026 Conference

The Fish Seascapes Project: a seascape approach to understanding the effects of urbanisation on the life history of estuarine fishes (139950)

Will Figueira 1 , Victoria Cole 2 , Dan Hewitt 1 , Nathan Knott 3 , Bryce Liddell 4 , Jessica Nguyen 5 , Matt Rees 3 , Carmen Ritter 1 , Iain Suthers 5 , Matt Taylor 2
  1. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Port Stephens, NSW, Australia
  3. Fisheries Research, Marine Ecosystem Unit, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Huskisson, NSW, Australia
  4. Gamay Rangers, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  5. School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Healthy fish populations are a fundamental element of thriving coastal ecosystems and an integral part of Australian life. There is an expectation that these ecosystems will be biodiverse and productive into the future, serving to underpin a huge variety of cultural, social, recreational and economic activities that depend upon them. Yet the ecosystem services that we derive from fish are threatened by development pressures, which can alter their habitat. Understanding the large-scale impacts this coastal development has on fishes is an urgent and critical knowledge gap. In this talk, we introduce a seascape ecology approach to assessing the multi-stressor impacts of urbanisation on the full life history of coastal fishes. The Fish Seascapes Project contrasts dynamics in two estuaries of SE Australia which differ in the degree to which they have been impacted by urbanisation pressures: Gamay, Botany Bay (highly urbanised) and Jervis Bay (low levels of urbanisation). The project integrates empirical data on fish recruitment, occupancy, and connectivity using a variety of methods addressing different life stages: traditional capture surveys, underwater video, and acoustic telemetry. We provide an overview of the modelling framework and discuss key initial findings regarding patterns of recruitment and occupancy relative to the seascape mosaic.