The Partnership Working to Understand Marine Life in Western Australia

If you live in or have ever visited Western Australia, you’ll know that our largest state’s coastline and ocean is pristine and beautiful. But a lot of it remains unexplored and poorly understood.

This is why partnerships, like that between the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Woodside, are incredibly important. In January the partnership celebrated 25 years of the industry and science leaders at AIMS and the Western Australia Museum working in collaboration to explore and conserve the unique diversity of Western Australia’s tropical marine environment.

Over that time the collaboration has meant divers and equipment has spent 18, 000 hours underwater, 2 AIMS marine vessels, 8 million specimens and artefacts for analysis, and over 450, 000 square kilometers surveyed.

AIMS CEO, DR Paul Hardisty, describes the scientific knowledge gained from this partnership as being invaluable to the Institute’s long-term experience in northern Australian waters.

“We now understand the processes that underpin the natural resilience of WA reefs and can describe ecosystem status and trends across scales” Dr Hardisty said in January.

“Science in remote WA can be expensive – to do it properly means our scientists are diving on the reef, doing it safely and effectively from our purpose-built ocean-going research vessels. The involvement of Woodside was one of the key reasons why much of this science has come to fruition”.

With Woodside operations adjacent to the North-West bio region, partnerships like this help understand, conserve and protect WA’s marine life.