Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour's Journal

We are forging ahead with the monthly photo submission competition with renewed support from Blue World, and so I'd like to congratulate user eschlogl for his Photo Observation of the Month of August of a White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) from Parsley Bay. Erik’s amazing photo truly highlights the yellow to brown body colouration on this seahorse, the numerous pale flecks, and its ability to camouflage from predators. Typical of other seahorses, the female will transfer her eggs into the abdominal pouch of the male, where he will fertilize them, provide physical protection to the embryos, aerate them, and provide initial-stage nourishment.

The observation of this species is extremely timely in the conversation about threatened species and habitat restoration in Sydney Harbour, particularly with some of the upscaled restoration efforts being led by Project Restore based out of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science. Pollution, urban development (including the installation of boat moorings and anchors), and illegal trade are major sources of the decline of seahorses, though illegal trade is less of a concern in Australia. Indeed, the motivation behind the Seahorse Hotels we now see at select locations around NSW harbours was that severe storms, about 10 years ago, reduced the population in NSW by 90%. These storms shift huge volumes of sand, smothering the soft corals, sponges and seagrass that they associate with. More recently, in 2022, a one-in-100-year flood event nearly wiped out an already rapidly declining White's Seahorse population in Port Stephens. Based on this, any pollution spilling into the Harbour would be a threat to seahorses and the marine habitat that they depend on. All the more reason to protect the inner harbour ecosystem that hosts these endangered sea creatures in Parsley Bay from further construction and infrastructure projects.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

The results are in!!! I am excited to announce that we have now completed our environmental DNA (or eDNA) seawater sampling at Parsley Bay (Vaucluse) and Camp Cove (Watsons Bay) for the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project. This represents 13 months of sampling at both sites. As mentioned previously, eDNA can be thought of as genetic “breadcrumbs” left behind in the environment that can identify every living thing, from microbes to mammals. This was all thanks to DNA sequencing provided by our friends at Wilderlab in New Zealand (https://www.wilderlab.co.nz/). Feel free to look through the "explore" tab on their webpage to view our sampling data populated on their map. Also feel free to view all the amazing flora and fauna that were detected at each of these locations.

Based on the “Wheels of Life” you see here constructed for Parsley Bay and Camp Cove, we detected 133 and 150 species of fish (with approximately 77% faunal overlap), respectively, with a number of cryptic species detections as well as detections of commercially important species. Almost all the usual fishy suspects were well represented (bream, goatfish, kelpfish, leatherjackets, longtoms, morwong, mullet, snapper, whiting, wrasses), with some of the more interesting detections including at least seven species of weedfish (Heteroclinus sp. and Cristiceps sp.), seahorses (genus (Hippocampus), at least two species of pipefish, a butterflyfish (Chaetodon flavirostris sp.), moray eels, at least six species of ray (including an eagle ray), a blind shark, and even mahi-mahi. We also detected 43 mollusc taxa at each site (including chitons, clams, cowries, limpets, mussels, nudibranchs, oysters, periwinkles, sea hares, turbans, warreners, and whelks); 31 and 23 worm taxa, respectively; 41 and 47 crustacean taxa (including amphipods, barnacles, lots and lots of copepods, crabs, and shrimps), respectively; 7 and 16 sponge taxa, respectively; 33 and 42 cnidarian taxa (including anemones, hydroids, hydromedusa, hydrozoans, snowflake corals, and jellyfish, including jellyfish blubber!), respectively; 6 bryozoan taxa at each site ; and 73 and 77 algal taxa (including brown algae, green algae, oyster theifs, kelp, seaweed, and sea rubber), respectively. These detections were in addition to hundreds of species of rotifers, fungi, insects, plants, diatoms, ciliates, bacteria, birds (ducks, gulls, shags, and teals), common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), New Zealand fur seals, humpback whales, two types of starfish (Astropecten sp., Parvulastra sp.), two types of sea urchin (Centrostephanus sp., Heliocidaris erythrogramma), three types of ascidian (Microcosmus sp., Pyura sp., and Styela sp.), two species of skink (Eastern Water Skink and Gully Skink, likely lounging on the adjacent shoreline), and unidentified penguins! These data will be used in a scientific publication under preparation, with your valuable iNaturalist observations used to ground truth our detections and put them into context. Thank you so much for your continued contributions.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, joseph_dibattista Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our running contest funded by Blue World and the Australian Museum based on citizen scientists submitting observations on our Marine Biodiversity in Southern Sydney Harbour iNaturalist project page. I am very pleased to announce that the grand prize sponsored by PRO DIVE Alexandria (gift certificate and a two tank boat dive with all gear included) is awarded to user eschlogl. Many thanks for your amazing efforts!!! eschlogl made huge contributions to the project by submitting 490 observations of 174 species from either Parsley Bay or Camp Cove. Other top prizes from Sydney Dive Charters, Dive Centre Bondi, and Clove Lane go to users jenssommer01 (104 observations and 66 species), du81iner (82 observations and 54 species), and nikihubbard (71 observations and 33 species). We also have honourable mentions to users nickatherine, ihunter, la3r, and sarah-sydneydives, who will all received art prints signed by NSW and shark conservation champion Valerie Taylor!

The top six most observed species from Parsley Bay or Camp Cove based on 1357 total observations during the running contest included the Fanbelly Leatherjacket (Monacanthus chinensis), Common Stingaree (Trygonoptera testacea), Mourning Cuttlefish (Sepia plangon), Common Sydney Octopus (Octopus tetricus), the endangered White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei), and Bluestriped Goatfish (Upeneichthys lineatus). We cannot thank everyone enough for their participation during the running contest. The Marine Biodiversity in Southern Sydney Harbour project will continue with regular journal posts on eDNA results and iNaturalist observations of marine creatures of interest from these locations. In addition to needing your observations to guide management decisions around potential marine park zoning, there are a number of observations still categorised as "Needs ID", and so please do have a look through previous submissions to see if you can help confirm identification to get them up to research grade.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

Given that we have completed 11 months of seawater sampling at Parsley Bay (Vaucluse) and Camp Cove (Watsons Bay) for the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project, I thought that I would share our updated biodiversity audit results based on environmental DNA (or eDNA) technologies. As mentioned previously, eDNA can be thought of as genetic “breadcrumbs” left behind in the environment that can identify every living thing, from microbes to mammals. This was all thanks to DNA sequencing provided by our friends at Wilderlab in New Zealand (https://www.wilderlab.co.nz/). Feel free to look through the "explore" tab on their webpage to view our sampling data populated on their map. Also feel free to view all the amazing flora and fauna that were detected at each of these locations.

Based on the “Wheels of Life” links provided above for Parsley Bay and Camp Cove, we detected 120 and 136 species of fish (with approximately 68% faunal overlap), respectively, with a number cryptic of species detections as well as detections of commercially important species. These detections were in addition to hundreds of species of molluscs, worms, crustaceans, rotifers, cnidarians, fungi, sponges, insects, plants, algae, diatoms, ciliates, birds, common dolphins, humpback whale, bacteria, and a penguin!

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, joseph_dibattista Dr Joseph DiBattista.

Just a friendly reminder that there is only 2 weeks left in our Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour photo submission contest. And so please do get your photos in on iNaturalist online to be considered for the grand prizes that include gift vouchers from local dive providers (Sydney Dive Charters, Dive Centre Bondi, PRO DIVE ALexandria) and restaurants (Clove Lane, Randwick). Note that we will be rewarding highly active users submitting archival photos (photos taken prior to June 1, 2022) and new photos (photos taken between October 15, 2022 and August 1, 2023) from both Parsley Bay and Camp Cove.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our eighth month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user nickatherine for her Photo Observation of the Month of June of a Winged Pocket Comb Jelly (Neis cordigera) from Parsley Bay. This observation was pulled from Nicole's countless hours of GoPro footage as an avid snorkeler at Parsley Bay over many years. Comb jellies do not often get a lot of love, but this ctenophore is particularly interesting in that it is among the largest species in the class (up to 30 cm in length), characterized by a pair of trailing gelatinous wings, and this individual exhibits a yellowish to deep orange-red pigmentation. We also dig the hints of electric blue! Notably, this is only the sixth record (ever!!) of this species from inside Sydney Harbour adding to the three previous iNaturalist observations and two specimens preserved at the Australian Museum dating back to 1923. Keep those spineless animal observations coming everyone.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

Today's journal entry simply proves that lightning can strike twice!! Soon after Erik Schlogl recorded the Orangespotted Glidergoby (Valenciennea puellaris) from Parsley Bay in southern Sydney Harbour, which represents an exceptional southern range extension from One Tree Island in Queensland (23°30'S), John Turnbull spotted a pair of this species in adjacent Camp Cove (see above photo). This follows a series of range extensions by tropical fishes in Sydney Harbour that we continue to record as people become more and more involved in this and other citizen science projects. Thanks to everyone for their contributions thus far!

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our seventh month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user johnsear for his Photo Observation of the Month of a Striate Anglerfish (Antennarius striatus) from Parsley Bay. And no, you are not seeing double, even though this is the second time a photo of a Striate Anglerfish was selected. We felt that this one in particular was a beauty, with its spotted body pattern readily apparent, which reinforces the extreme variability in colouration within this species.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

I am here providing an update on the habitat restoration component of the Blue World funded Valerie Taylor Prize project on "Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour". I am happy to announce that the four seahorse hotels installed by Sealife Aquarium on March 23rd in approximately 6 metres of water at Parsley Bay were finally sighted! The hotels have accrued some marine growth but no resident seahorses yet. I encourage others to take photos of these structures and associated growth if diving at Parsley Bay. We will also be regularly checking to see if any seahorses have "moved in". Thanks for pointing us in the right direction John Sear!

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, joseph_dibattista Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our sixth month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user diverosa for their Photo Observation of the Month of April, a Dagger Tuskfish (Choerodon jordani) from Camp Cove. Although technically submitted in the month of March, the taxonomy for this obsrvation was only sorted in the month of April with the help of the Australasian Fishes community.

This species, found on sand and rubble areas along reef edges, is named after one of histories most accomplished (and controversial) ichthyologists and founding president of Stanford University in the US, David Starr Jordan. In fact, David Starr Jordan's life and times were chronicled in an award winning book by author Lulu Miller (of "RadioLab" and "This American Life" podcast fame) worthy of a deep dive.

In Eastern Australia, this species is recorded from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, to the Solitary islands, New South Wales, with juveniles south to Barunguba (Montague Island) in southern New South Wales. What makes this photo so special is that this is the first observation ever recorded from Sydney Harbour, and this is certainly not for a lack of effort! Indeed, in our recent study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, I alongside Australian Museum scientists generated an up-to-date and annotated checklist of all fishes ever recorded from Sydney Harbour based on specimens held at the Australian Museum dating back to 1868, as well as newly available citizen science observations recorded since 2009 via the Australasian Fishes Project and Reef Life Survey program. Our published study brought the number of fish species recorded from Sydney Harbour, based on three independent data sources, up to 675. That said, since its publication in December 2022, we have six new fish species records thanks to valuable observations and photos submitted by citizen scientists (Naso lituratus, Amblyeleotris stenotaeniata, Amblyeleotris ogasawarensis, Carangoides coeruleopinnatus, and Valenciennea puellaris), including the amazing photo of the month of April (Choerodon jordani) submitted by user diverosa.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.