Lihou Reef is one of Australia’s largest nature reserves, covering an area of 8,440 km2: that’s about three times the size of the Australian Capital Territory. The last bird expedition, 25 years ago, reported Little Terns breeding on its sandy islands. Little Terns are similar to Fairy Terns but normally found inshore. So much so, reports in the 1960s caused CSIRO scientists to say that “the nesting of the species some 400 miles east of the Queensland coast could be exceptional”. Little Terns were reported as early as 1922 on Willis Island, elsewhere in the Coral Sea. It was just by chance that this long-standing myth was laid to rest in 2006, with the discovery of Fairy Terns, not Little Terns, in an unprotected part of the Coral Sea just a few tens of miles outside Lihou Reef.

New Caledonian Fairy Terns are descended from the extremely rare New Zealand Fairy Tern and all three forms are genetically distinct and completely isolated. The New Caledonian Ornithological Society believes “drastic conservation measures are needed for the New Caledonian Fairy Tern”. Commenting on the discovery of birds at Lihou Reef, Nicolas Barré, said ” it would be great if a subpopulation can establish somewhere out of the “official” range.

Fairy Tern may be one of the most significant species in the Coral Sea but because of threats to it in New Caledonia, it is also an important flagship species for the Western Pacific. It may once have occurred throughout the Coral Sea. Perhaps it still does? If this internationally important discovery can be made in just a short trip, what else could there be to find?

A second expedition is planned for December 2009, with specific focus on gathering more information on this new bird for Australia. For more information or to support the expedition, contact Simon Mustoe (simonmustoe@ecology-solutions.com.au / +61405 220830).

Fairy Tern - BirdLife Species Factsheet: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3281&m=0

Carter, M. & Mustoe, S. (2007) Another Form of Fairy Tern Sterna nereis Breeding in Australian Territory. Australian Field Ornithology, 24, 167-79.

Spaggiari, J., Barre, N., Franceschi-Baudat, J. & Borsa, P. (2007). New Caledonian Seabirds. In Compendium of Marine Species of New Caledonia (eds C.E. Payri & B. Forges), pp. 415-28. IRD, Nouméa. <http://www.ird.nc/biodec/downloads/Compendium/Version%20v%E9rrouill%E9e/Spaggiari-Barre-Baudat-Bor-v.pdf>

Day 3 - Ancient Green Mariners and Missing Minkes

Given that we had such an amazing encounter with the Minke whales, we anchored at night in the shelter of Challenger bay. Challenger Bay is located at the southern tip of Ribbon Reef #10. The site is composed of a back reef slope with an outstanding diversity of corals and a sandy slope with patches of corals, which drops to approximately 35m. This bay is well renowned dive site given its stunning coral gardens and abundant fish life.

At 7.30am, John Rumney took us out on The White Knight a small little rib used predominately for shark research, for a morning snorkel. As we immersed ourselves in the water we were unexpectedly greeted by a school of thirty Bumphead parrot fish. It is the largest of the parrot fish family and can grow wup to 1.3 metres in length and can live up to 40 years.

Unfortunately, these fish are in decline around the world- threatened by overexploitation and habitat degradation. They really are a quite a sight to behold with their large bulbous forehead and prominent teeth plates. Within their group, they slowly meander along, seemingly unperturbed by our presence. We are certainly lucky to come across such a group, and I can’t help but be reminded just how critical it is to establish the Coral Sea as a Marine Protected Area. The Coral Sea is a very important habitat for the intriguing Bumphead Parrot fish.

Once the snorkel is over and we had some breakfast inside our bellies we move back to the Lighthouse bommie to seek the minke whales again.

This time the trip is less fruitful; we have two whales pass but they just didn’t seem interested. Just a little reminder that nature is certainly not on tap - those rare close encounters you can never take for granted, you can certainly never request a replay.

Richard and Dean aren’t going to get the footage they want today; just one of the downsides of filming nature. Often you can spend many long hours waiting for that magical shot that in reality may only be a few seconds on film. Although, as in Richard’s own words, ‘when you get it - it is worth the wait’.

There is nothing like coming up close and personal with a Green Turtle. Along with the whale encounter, I have literally feel like I have waited all my life for this moment.

Since working on WWF’s Coral Sea campaign, I have not only learnt how important the Coral Sea is as a critical habitat for Green turtles, but just how endangered these gorgeous animals are and its tragic.

Globally populations have been estimated to have declined up to 61 per cent over the last three generations, based on a number of factors from overexploitation of their eggs and nesting adult females to incidental mortality in fisheries and habitat degradation.

And here I am, within an arm’s reach of an animal that had such character, happily going along on its way and living in harmony with its environment - you just can’t beat that kind of experience. There is no question in my mind, protecting the marine environment for future generations is essential and we must do it now before it’s too late.

With little whale activity we moved to the Pixie’s Pinnacle for another snorkel. Pixie’s pinnacle is a like huge cone shape pyramid that is coated with myriad corals both soft and hard, gorgonians, sea whips and sponges.

Snorkelling around this pinnacle was like sensory overload; like an underwater Grand Central Station, it was one hive of activity from schooling zebra fish, anemones with their clown fish popping in and out cleaner wrasse while underneath the overhangs and caves lay shrimps, lionfish and moray eels.

John gave us the low down on the biology and behaviour of the minke whales based on the research accrued over the years as part of the Minke Whale Project. The presentation was accompanied with an informative DVD and once again I was struck by how little we really know about these majestic animals and my mind got ticking – what can we do to help further the research? We have to know more about what we need to do protect to their environment, and how best can we work to bring the underwater world into the hearts and mind of every individual.

Can you imagine what would happen if Australian scientists discovered a hundred new species of whales and dolphins in our seas? The wires would be buzzing with the news.

However, it’s not whales and dolphins that have been under the scrutiny of scientists of late, but more the ancient and mysterious predators of the ocean - sharks and their close relatives, rays.

This week, CSIRO scientists revealed that they have discovered more than one hundred new species of shark and ray in Australian waters. Many of these species are rare and elusive, or live in remote and isolated places like Australia’s Coral Sea – a world-renowned marine predator hotspot.

While CSIRO scientists in Hobart are busy adding to the fauna list of Australian sharks and rays, advancing the understanding of the top marine predators in our waters, fisheries managers in Brisbane are drawing up plans to issue licenses for the taking of hundreds of tons of sharks from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. As science furthers our knowledge of these key ocean predators, managers are planning more dedicated shark fisheries. It is like we are writing the fine print on the headstone while we drive them to extinction, and it is literally playing out before our eyes.

The state of nature reflects a government’s ability to manage responsibly for future generations. Fisheries are a classic example of a renewable natural resource that is difficult to manage responsibly. At worst, in the absence of management, there is serial depletion as the ‘tragedy of the commons’ takes hold, with the highest value species vanishing first, followed by the next most valuable and so on.

Even where management structures are in place, decision-making can often be characterised as being driven by delusional optimism, based not on precautionary science but on the need to appease industry stakeholders. The result is the same, with stocks dwindling and fishers switching to different products as high value species vanish.

Sharks provide early warnings of this type of effect. While their fins command a high price on the seafood market, their slow reproductive rates – more akin to whales and dolphins than fish – mean populations are slow to recover from fishing.

As a result, sharks are literally vanishing from our waters. While the CSIRO adds new species to the list, the sharks we already know about, like the hammerheads, thresher sharks and makos nudge closer to extinction. This is the inconvenient truth about sharks globally.

It is against this global backdrop, Queensland has proposed to start a dedicated shark fishery including in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, in an act, not dissimilar to allowing the deliberate hunting and removal of hundreds, if not thousands, of lions, leopards and cheetahs from the great natural parks of Africa.

The Queensland Government should abandon its plans for a dedicated shark fishery and instead concentrate on the much greater opportunities for revenue through tourism, and on its global responsibility to protect their dwindling populations. This would mean halting fishing on at-risk shark species such as hammerheads, and putting conservation measures first, such as protecting those maternity wards and nursery grounds where those sharks come to breed, the same grounds that would be targeted by fishers seeking baby sharks.

A more responsible approach would also mean capitalsing on the fact that a shark caught in the lens of a tourism diver is worth far more than the same shark caught in a hook or net, destined for a bowl of soup or a grocery store shelf, and investing in dive based tourism.

Out in the Coral Sea, divers pay thousands of dollars to catch a glimpse of a school of sharks in the wild. Compared to the tens of dollars per kilo retail price for sharks caught and landed on a commercial fishing – it is evident that it makes both economic and ecological sense to protect sharks.

Australian governments often lay the blame for shark declines on foreign fishing vessels, while turning a blind eye to the weak management of domestic shark fisheries and inadequate controls and data to ensure sustainability.

Many Australians would be surprised to learn that we now have the dubious honour of being in the top twenty-five shark-catching nations on the planet, with kilometres of gill-nets set along our coast every year to service the shark trade.

Let us celebrate the discovery of a hundred new Australian shark species, but as a nation that claims to be a world leader in marine conservation, let us say no to the taking of hundreds of tons of sharks from the Great Barrier Reef Park and other shark hotspots in Australian waters. It is simply not acceptable.

Dr Gilly Llewellyn
Oceans Program Leader

(If you missed it, start from part 1)

Day 2 - Dancing Minkes and Tall Tales of The Sea

Waking up was slightly surreal, the engine was roaring, the boat was rocking – I couldn’t believe it we had been travelling all night – we were now 9 hours away from the mainland. We had arrived at a place called Light House – years of data collection from tourism boats and scientific research has shown that this is the hotspot for Minke whale activity. Expectations were running high – we were all to look out for a fin slicing the surface of the water or that signature blow as the whale exhales a lung full of air into the atmosphere.

11.00am and the doctor shouts Minke! The rope is deployed, I am literally bursting at the seams to jump into the water.

That’s it, I’m in, I move to the end of the rope and then out of the corner of my eye I see it – a minke whale! My heart skips a beat! This is something I have dreamed about since I was a little girl.

And it’s coming closer, I stop still in sheer amazement, this whale is about 6 metres long with at least 6 cookie cutter marks on its back - a sign that these whales are regular visitors of the Coral Sea.

It’s is not long before the whales seem to have called in their comrades to look at the strange spectacle of six humans hanging on a rope. At one point there is up to 10 whales coming at us from every which way – it utterly amazing. After each pass their confidence appears to build and the closer, more magical the encounters are.

I try my best to photograph their left and right flanks for photo-identification and to keep still so others can do the same.

My fingers are shriveled liked prunes from being in the water so long when I start to feel the pinch of the cold – just as I think about heading back in one of the most memorable encounters begins.

In the corner of my eye I see a large whale is powering along, moving using its tail to push its self through the water column and it’s making a bee line right for me! The whale approaches is a metre away - I look up to John Rumney who’s watching from the back of the boat. It’s like in a pantomime, he’s shouting,“it’s behind you!”. “I know,” I shout back, she is quite hard to miss.

Soon she is right beside me, presenting that wonderfully bright white underbelly and spinning on her tail – pirouetting like a ballerina – the trade mark of the one and only balletic Dwarf Minke Whale – Pavlova

To be honest I am so astounded, blown away that the thought of taking a photograph or filming the spectacle is the last thing on my mind, instead it will be forever engraved in my memory. After her little spin, Pavlova (still to be confirmed) exhibits a behaviour termed by Minke Whale biologists as motorboating. A rare behaviour where the ‘whale near horizontal, breaks the water surface and its snout and the upper part of its head is maintained just above the water surface while slowly moving forward.’ She then moves off, but as if unsatisfied with the last encounter she comes back again for another closer look – another belly presentation, another little motor around and off she goes.

I hear cheers from the back of the boat as those that have got out of the water earlier shout with amazement. Richard Fitzpatrick, captures the encounter on camera from aboard the vessel, my heart is pounding and I’m quite dumbfounded about what has just happened. You just can’t help but wonder what’s going on in a whale’s mind when it acts like that, how do they perceive you and what, if anything, was it trying to communicate?

Once again I am reminded just how little we know about the marine environment and its inhabitants, an underwater world of mysteries yet to be solved. Our scientific understanding is certainly growing and technologies to study it are advancing fast, but perhaps not fast enough to fully grasp the extent of how much we are impacting it.

Come evening time we are all exhausted from the days activities, we fill out the data sightings sheet, record all the whale behaviours we had seen and start to revel in each other’s stories and experiences from the marine realm. As always Richard Fitzpatrick keeps us gripped with all the stories of near death experiences he has had as well as fascinating facts about marine life that only someone that lives and breathes the ocean life can experience.

He told us about some of his unique shark encounters and gives us a sneak preview of some of the footage on sharks that he has put together for a new documentary soon to be aired in Australia in October.

9.00pm and I am out for the count – until another day.

Continue on to part 5

(If you missed it, start from part 1)

Day 1 – Dreams Come True

5.00pm – After an all day trip from Sydney to Cairns, and Cairns to Port Douglas – I finally boarded what was to be my home for the next six days – a gorgeous little boat called the Phoenix.

The boat crew were warm and welcoming, including Pete the skipper, Michelle the dive instructor with more qualifications than you could count and Charlie the chef. Soon enough the guests started to arrive, among them was Richard Fitzpatrick – an Emmy nominated filmmaker and world renowned shark scientist along with his sidekick - Dr Dean Miller. Dean, also a marine scientist, has worked with Richard on a number projects, on this trip he was here to film the underwater world of the Minke whale. Then there was of course the wonderful John Rumney - a well-loved raconteur and champion for the environment.

Eagerly anticipating the trip ahead, I sat down to listen to John brief us about the Minke Whales – what to expect and how to follow the Code of Conduct, a key procedure we have to follow to minimize any impact we may have and to ensure a safe encounter with the whales.

Most of the evening I just could not imagine what to expect, I felt like I was going to burst, I was so close to living a lifelong dream.

What was it really going to be like to be that close to such a large mammal and to stare into the eye of animal whose ancestors have been on this earth for millions of years?

Later that evening, in the cool evening breeze, I sat up on the top deck, working with John and Dean to create a rope with a series of tyre inner tubes attached to it. This rope was a requirement of the Code of Conduct, to be deployed from the back of the boat during our swim with the whales and to hold us steady as we took photos of the whales for scientific identification. As we made the ropes, I heard about the fantastic work Dean had done as part of his PHD looking at the tourism value of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea as a dive destination. There is no mistaking that Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea is one magical place and an extraordinary out-of-this-world dive destination.

Continue on to part 4

(If you missed it, start from part 1)

An Adventure to Behold

The trip was organised by John Rumney founder of Eye to Eye Marine Encounters, an ecotourism venture which teams up with world-class marine scientists to offer the ultimate in adventure diving on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

John Rumney has joined WWF-Australia’s campaign calling for the Coral Sea to be declared a Marine Protected Area - with the aim to unite tourism with research to help people understand the ‘the necessity of marine conservation now and into the future’. That’s John’s mission, and ours too.

The scientific research carried out aboard the boat is part of the Minke Whale Project. A joint initiative of researchers from James Cook University, the Museum of Tropical Queensland and Undersea Explorer. This is its 12^th successive year of dwarf minke whales field studies, focusing on their behaviour, biology and interactions with divers and snorkellers in the northern Great Barrier Reef.

The Dwarf Minke Whale

The dwarf minke whale is only found in the Southern Hemisphere. It has a white shoulder and flipper base, with a dark-grey tip on the flipper. The colour patterns of a dwarf minke whale are the most complex patterns of any baleen whale.

Like the humpback whale the dwarf minke whale is toothless, instead they have up to 300 baleen plates made out of keratin (the same substance as our fingernails) that hang either side from the roof of its mouth. To feed, the whale opens its mouth, extending its throat pleats to engulf balls of schooling fish or krill. As the throat compresses, water is pushed out between the baleen plates and is trapped between the fine bristles that fray from the inner edge of each baleen plate.

Not a lot is known about the dwarf minke whale – scientists still need to find out how many there are and how far they travel from each other. What we do know, is that every year between March and October they can be seen in the Northern Barrier Reef - where the outer Barrier Reef meets with the waters of the Coral Sea. Eighty per cent of the whale sightings occur between June and July.

One of the tell tale signs that the dwarf minke whales like to visit the Coral Sea is from the scars left by small sharks called Cookie Cutter Sharks (Isistius).

These sharks inhabit the open ocean, they have a cigar shaped body and grow to about half a metre long. They feed by attaching themselves to larger prey such as whales and dolphins and then spin to cut out a cookie-shaped plug of blubber – leaving a trademark oval scar on the whale.

Dwarf minke whales have been re-sighted inside the ribbon reefs of the Barrier Reef with a new oval scar, suggesting they have been in open waters of the Coral Sea.

Continue on to part 3

The Coral Sea is one of the world’s last remaining pristine tropical marine environments, a vast wilderness comprised of diverse habitats that play host to a wide range of our ocean’s top predators including whales, sharks and turtles.

Last month I was fortunate enough to join a team of marine scientists, professional photographers and filmmakers on a boat trip that combined a once in a life time experience – to swim with a whale - with hands on scientific research to help understand the biology, ecology and behaviour of these extra ordinary animals that we still know so little about.

The Coral Sea is located off the north-east coast of Australia and sits adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. While the Coral Sea is biologically unique, many species that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef also inhabit the Coral Sea so there is biological connectivity there.

However, unlike the Great Barrier Reef the Coral Sea is largely unprotected. Science indicates that if we protect an animal on the Great Barrier Reef we need to protect as much of a species range as possible including the Coral Sea.

Both the GBR and the Coral Sea are home to the Dwarf Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), a beautifully patterned baleen whale that can reach up to eight metres long. These magnificent creatures are known to visit the far reaches of the Great Barrier Reef in large numbers between March and November.

As a marine mammal scientist, the trip gave me the opportunity not only to learn more about the animals that I am so passionate about, but also the chance to workshop ideas with marine scientists on what further research needs to be done to find out more about these enigmatic animals.

It’s our job to identify the threats they face and find the best ways to protect them such as a declaration of the Coral Sea as a Marine Protected Area.

Continue on to part 2

Hi – I’m Lydia, WWF Australia’s Tropical Marine and Coastal Policy Manager and I am so excited to be part of WWF’s campaign to Save the Coral Sea.

I just spent the last few days in Port Douglas meeting with the some wonderful scientists from James Cook University to learn more about the beautiful Dwarf MinkeWhale. These magnificent creatures are a regular visitor of the Northern Great Barrier Reef between June and July and are known to inhabit the Coral Sea. It was fascinating to learn about these research that James Cook University are doing in collaboration Museum of tropical Queensland and Undersea Explorer – apparently the whales have been shown to exhibit a behavior called pirouetting where they spin vertically in water like a ballerina - amazing!

During my time in Cairns I could not resist a trip out to the Great Barrier reef to – it was an truly mind blowing experience the diversity of life was phenomenal such a hub of activity with parrot fish grazing the reefs, the odd damsel fish having a tiff with one of his/her friend and ofcourse those beautiful clownfish hiding in wave of sea anemone tentacles! I was even lucky enough to spot a white–tip reef shark. As I dived amongst this wonderful diversity I could help thinking about the Coral Sea and how the marine life is in some ways so similar to the barrier reef and yet also quite different - with many fish and coral species found only in the Coral Sea and ofcourse you would be more likely to come across sharks too! I really hit home just how important it is that we do our best to protect the Coral Sea as we do with the Great Barrier Reef so that it too can be enjoyed by future generations to come.

The Coral Sea campaign has been gathering momentum over the last couple of weeks and we’ve been really pleased by the amount of media attention that has been generated. There’s been wide coverage on TV, radio newspapers and magazines and of course, as you’re reading this, our website has been a hit too!

In many ways the real work starts now as we have to translate the obvious interest and concern that we all share for the future of the Coral Sea into action. The challenge is not to let the Coral Sea slip from the minds of our decision-makers and while WWF will keep building the case for protection, your help in showing your interest will also be key. Why not take a moment to sign the petition?

Our Coral Sea celebrity ambassadors have certainly been doing their part with Mimi MacPherson doing some wonderful TV interviews and she and Elka Graham also having a star feature in the New Idea magazine. We will soon have the results of some of the new shark research that we undertook on the Coral Sea expedition so stay tuned for the next update!

Hi - I’m Rick, WWF-Australia’s Tropical Marine and Coastal Policy Manager and I’ve just returned from the Coral Sea on board the Undersea Explorer - a research/tourism vessel. Part of WWF’s work to push for more protection for the Coral Sea is to raise the profile of this spectacular area, and that’s what this trip was all about.

Going out to sea for 4 days with a bunch of media people and a couple of WWF’s celebrity ambassadors might not sound like hard work, but with 2-3 metre swells and 25 knot winds it wasn’t too easy either! Fortunately everyone one board loved the trip and once we were in the water checking out the Coral Sea’s awesome marine wonders any thoughts of sea-sicknesses soon disappeared.

A major highlight of the trip was when marine biologist Richard Fitzpatrick retrieved a data logger that had been placed on a grey reef shark 6 months previously. This is a world first and we are keenly waiting to hear what insights into these amazing animals these data will provide.

I think we all returned to shore with a greater appreciation of the uniqueness of the Coral Sea and the realisation that we need to protect the wonderful area before it suffers a similar fate to other tropical marine regions. Please keep coming back to the blog to hear how the campaign is going and hear some more tales from WWF’s Coral Sea expedition.

Rick @ WWF