Click here if you are having trouble viewing this message.
A better tomorrow
As 2020 fades into the rear-view mirror, we work hard to ensure our future is better than our past and taking better care of the systems that sustain us should be at the forefront of our efforts.
One step in the right direction is the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which starts this year.
This initiative aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part.
We must continue to scan the horizon to understand how best practice is evolving, and adopt solutions that drive continual improvement – this is the focus of Outcome 2 of FRDC’s new R&D Plan 2020-25.
A recently- developed device ticks many innovation boxes by reducing biofouling. This in turn can reduce the carbon emissions of ships as well as minimise the risk of foreign marine species invading new environments.
Biofouling is the accumulation of unwanted organisms on ships or underwater infrastructure. In vessels, biofouling creates drag and increases the amount of fuel consumed during navigation. Species attached to a ship can also be transported outside of their natural range, causing issues to the local ecosystems. The solution? Regularly vacuuming the hull to stop biofouling from accumulating. Now this is possible thanks to a clever new device that attaches to the ship’s hull and moves around removing any organisms attached to the vessel.
The blue economy - defining the way forward
This year the World Ocean Summit Virtual Week agenda is divided into a series of plenary sessions and six industry tracks; aquaculture, fishing, shipping, energy, plastics, and tourism.
CrustyBase is a repository and analysis suite for crustacean transcriptome data. Each dataset describes the activity of every expressed gene in a particular species, across a set of samples. CrustyBase aims to unite our scientific efforts by serving as a community database for crustacean transcriptome data.
CrustyBase currently contains 12 transcriptome datasets, but anyone can add to this in the future by uploading their own.
Held on 2-5 March, this year the event will explore Growing Australian agriculture in an uncertain world with a week of insights from leading speakers on the opportunities and challenges ahead. The Thursday Fishing and Aquaculture session will feature a presentation on responding to COVID-19 – what happened and how sectors have responded.
The survey revealed that a few countries already use app information to support existing data collection, and that this number is likely to increase within 5–10?years. However, concerns over the quality of data and potential bias made this data unsuitable as an only source of information.
The study identified the need for government agencies and other managers and researchers to coordinate their data collection and analysis efforts to ensure angler-collected data is used to its full potential.
