The recent appearance of marine fish species far from their usual WA waters is being captured by the national Redmap fish monitoring project.
A sustained marine heatwave and stronger Leeuwin Current this year have pushed warm water from the Pilbara southwards to the south coast moving species outside of their normal home ranges.
That’s where the Redmap (Range Extension Database and Mapping) project becomes a valuable tool to help scientists understand the changing marine environment.
Since 2012, WA citizen scientists including fishers, divers and beachcombers, have been logging reports of unusual or out-of-range sightings of marine species and providing photographic and videoevidence.
An analysis of 10 years of Redmap reports confirms that many important commercial and recreational species including mangrove jack, red emperor, redthroat emperor and Rankin cod as well as smaller non-fishery species including Moorish idol, threadfin butterflyfish and Indo-Pacific Sergeant have moved further south down the WA coast.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has been a partner in the Redmap project led by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at University of Hobart since its inception.
DPIRD principal research scientist Gary Jackson said WA locals would be noticing unusual marine species along the WA coast and encouraged them to report their sightings through to the Redmap website or app (www.redmap.org.au)
“In sheer size, the WA and Australian coastlines are challenging, so it often makes our citizen scientists the sentinels of our marine environment and they play a vital role in reporting their observations with photos of what they’ve seen,” Dr Jackson said.
“Fishers, divers and snorkelers who regularly visit a patch of coastline can help us build a better understanding of movements of marine species and through Redmap we can get a more detailed insight of what’s changing and where.
“Redmap invites Australian ocean users to spot, log and map marine species that are unusual, so download the Redmap app and join a strong community helping us learn more about our changing marine environment.”
