WEBVTT - The giant cuttlefish and the deadly algal bloom 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:06.280 I first went to South Australia in mid June, at 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.560 which point, Yeah, the bloom was in full swing. 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.240 The large number of fish and marine life have been 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.680 washing up dead along the shore, including two penguins in 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:16.680 the past week. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.240 When dead fish began washing up on South Australian beaches 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.759 earlier this year, doctor Scott Bennett was alarmed. Scott's a 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.640 marin ecologist at the University of Tasmania, and he knew 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.120 that dead fish on shore spelled trouble under the surface. 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.919 Nobody was looking under the water, Nobody had seen impacts 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.760 on the reef, and in discussion with colleagues in South Australia, 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.200 they had really limited capacity to get out. 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:44.840 There and have a look. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:47.960 On a dive in June, Scott came face to face 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.760 with the devastating impact of the largest algal bloom Australia 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:52.640 has ever seen. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.560 The full impact still isn't known. 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.040 But some of Australia's rarest and strangest animals could we 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:07.399 wiped out entirely. I'm Ruby Jones and this is seven 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.679 AM today doctor Scott Bennett on what caused. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:13.000 The algal bloom and what it. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:23.920 Means for the fate of the ocean. It's Wednesday, August thirteenth. 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.480 Goals are growing for the Commonwealth to declare an enormous 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.520 algal bloom off the coast of South Australia a natural disaster. 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.240 It's been described as an underwater bushfire because of the 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.480 devastating effect on marine life. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.600 Scott, You've conducted the only underwater survey of the impacts 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.480 of the algal bloom in South Australia, So can you 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:45.679 tell me about what you saw. 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.000 It was one of the most devastating dive trips I've 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.880 ever been on, to be honest. So you know, we 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.600 do these trips around the country monitoring biodiversity of our 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.400 reefs and when we do them, they're you know, typically 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.600 really enjoyable trips. Obviously we have just these amazing help 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:07.920 forest ecosystems throughout Southern Australia. Visibility is often really nice. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.600 You can see a lot of life and diversity on 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.720 these dives, so they're really exciting trips to go on. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.560 This trip, the whole spect of it was unlike anything 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:17.200 we normally do. 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.079 Beach goers first sounded the alarm about the micro algal 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.800 bloom back in March, after dead marine life washed up 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.960 along the Flurio Peninsula and surfers reported feeling unwell, you. 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.800 Know, on the first dive. To be honest, kind of 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.840 fulfilled our expectations. We actually couldn't see anything. It was 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.320 just so turbid and stirred up. But we continued on 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.959 and conditions over the day and that week got better. 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.560 But the realization of the impacts on the marine life 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.520 were really reinforced. 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.520 The algal bloom has spread into the Golfer Saint Vincent, 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.200 with smaller mini blooms likely present in the Spencer Gulf too. 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.800 I've never seen so many dead animals on the bottom 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.240 of the ocean. Normally, if things die, they get consumed 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.200 or washed away or taken away pretty quickly. This wasn't 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.079 the case right now. There's a lot of dead, particularly 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.680 invertebrate animals, so things like sea stars, crabs dead and 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:16.080 lyned around on the bottom. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:18.839 More than twelve thousand animals are estimated to have died 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:23.440 so far, including fish, sting, rays, dolphins, and sharks. Commercial 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.520 fishes have been forced to pause their operations indefinitely. 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:28.960 A lot of fish that you would expect to see 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.760 just weren't there. Like a lot of the reefs would 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:35.320 ghost lick quiet. But at the same time, a lot 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.040 of the seaweeds and a lot of the reefs were okay, 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.200 like reasonably healthy, and so it wasn't a complete apocalypse. 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.200 Okay, Well, tell me more about the algal bloom itself. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.960 What is it exactly and how did it start? 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.560 Yeah, So in this case they have the harmful algal 0:03:54.640 --> 0:04:00.680 bloom is a bloom of micro algae harmful micros in 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.640 this context. The reported species a lot is Kernia mikimoti, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.520 but it's actually a multiple species that are forming this bloom. 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.160 But what's concerning is there's a number of there's types 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.360 of toxins, So things like brevy toxins which are being 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.400 found in these blooms haven't been recorded in Australia before. 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.640 So while harmful alva blooms are actually really common around Australia, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.280 we see them in all states. We see them in 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.600 some form each year, we've never seen anything of this 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.240 magnitude before this scale. 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.200 And so what are the conditions that lead to a 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.800 bloom like this? What do you need to have in 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:40.320 the ocean. 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:45.880 So typically we need warm temperatures, long days like plenty 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:50.560 of light and nutrients and for this bloom, what we 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.600 saw was we had a really intense marine heat wave. 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:55.520 That's one of the most intense marine heat waves who 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.000 recorded in South Australia, which seems to have been a 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.680 real trigger. It obviously occurred in summertime where we still 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.080 have long days, and it was on this base of 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.960 high nutrient conditions. So the nutrient trigger or the nutrient 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.359 source is still unknown, but yeah, certainly nutrients are an 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.039 important factor as well as temperature. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.000 What is it like for you as someone who has 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:23.080 spent their working life in reefs gone on? I'm sure 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.440 many dives seen incredible things underwater. What is it like 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.359 to do a dive like this and witness the state 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:31.840 of the. 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:32.599 Reef right now? 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.960 It's really devastating to see the state of the reef 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.160 the moment. And for me as a scientist as well, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.760 South Australia is a really unique place for the biodiversity. 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:50.320 Least reef biodiversity. Around seventy percent of the species that 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.120 live on the reefs in this area are unique to 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.360 the region, unique to Southern Australia. They're unique because they've 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.120 been isolated literally for tens of millions of years here 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.960 at the bottom of the earth, basically not found anywhere 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.240 else on Earth. And until now, South Australia's been a 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.880 bit of a refuge for a lot of these unique 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.680 temperate species. We've had huge impacts on our east and 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.560 west coast of the country due to marine heat waves 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.080 and the like, and for whatever reason, South Australia hadn't 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.880 suffered those heat waves and those impacts until now, and 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:27.040 so the population levels of some of our most rare 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.960 and bizarre organisms were stable or high in South Australia 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.640 where they collapsed everywhere else. And now that refuge is 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:35.279 under attack. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.159 Can you tell me more about those species? What sorts 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.240 of creatures are we talking about? 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.880 I mean, there's a whole host of really weird and 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.800 wonderful things. I think some of the most iconic species 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:50.160 are like our leafy sea dragons, particularly around the Adelaide 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.040 coastline and the fluri O Peninsula plased like Rapid Bay 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.000 and Victor Harbor. These are real tourist attractions to come 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.680 and see these leafy sea dragons, which you only find 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:05.040 in South Australia and in parts of southwestern Australia across 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.240 the Bremer Bay, but in the early days of the bloom, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.320 people were finding dozens of these washed up and they're 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.880 not huge populations, so they're obviously a massive concern. Another 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:18.960 massive concern, which is a really live issue at the moment, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:24.440 are the giant cuttlefish. And each year there's this remarkable 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.880 event where just thousands one thousands of cuttlefish come and 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.880 aggregate in this small area to mate and lay eggs. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.080 At the moment, the bloom is tracking up the Spencer 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.840 Gulf towards these aggregations. Currently, the adults have laid their 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.200 eggs and they're now going through their natural senescence phase. 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.960 But there's a lot of concern for what will become 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.200 of this new cohort that's about to hatch, and if 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.120 the bloom continues to move up, it could reach there 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.280 in the next weeks. If nothing changes. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.080 Coming up, what will happen if the cuttlefish and the 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:20.160 bloom collide. Scott The algal bloom in South Australia is 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.400 still spreading and it's getting closer and closer to the 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.400 gathering of these giant cuttlefish that's happening right now. So 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.200 if the bloom does spread to where they are, what 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:33.559 impact will. 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.320 That have well, there's a real risk that we lose 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.640 this entire cohort, which means this entire population it is 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:46.160 under genuine and serious threat from the hab There's been 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:51.520 a number of emergency meetings trying discussing possible interventions and 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.360 things like this. But the scale of these aggregations and 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.240 these breeding events, and the timeframe that we're working with, 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.079 which is literally you know now, like things have to 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.680 happen immediately, it is significant. Interventions aren't really on the table. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.440 Things like removing eggs and relocating them, you know, just 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.920 the feasibility of those things are deemed not possible right now, 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.040 and so there is a real risk these populations are 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.160 lost or they're going to be severely impacted we would expect. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.800 And one of the scariest things about this algal bloom 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.920 is the scale of it. And it's still spreading, I believe. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.960 So as you watch that happen, what is that telling 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.480 you about the fate of our oceans more broadly? 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.120 Yes, I think one of the scary things about this 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.680 is the scale of the impact. This is the largest 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.319 harmful algal bloom that we've seen in Australia and most devastating. 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:50.080 It's spanning across tens of thousands of square kilometers of 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.960 reef of marine habitat, and we don't expect this to 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.480 be an isolated or unique event to South Australia. This 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.360 is quite symptomatic the impacts of climate change that we're 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.599 seeing throughout our coastlines around Australia. I mean, it was 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.240 only this summer that northwestern Australia, up off Ningaloo, the 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.760 roly Shoal, some of our most iconic coral reefs, suffered 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.760 some of the most devastating bleaching events that they've ever 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.160 experienced as well. So this is happening in parallel with 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.439 the have down here. We know in southeastern Australia these 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.959 synergistic or compounding impacts of really rapid rates of warming 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:33.200 down the coast of Tasmania eastern Victoria. That's bringing new 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.280 species further and further south. And so in the case 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.840 of Tasmania, it's bringing this long spine sea itch and 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.080 further south. And these long spine search is overgrazing that 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.040 they're voracious herbivores. They feed on kelp and seaweeds and 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.960 they create these large baron areas that are devoid of 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:56.560 vegetation and those barren areas are spreading really rapidly through Tasmania, 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.000 Eastern Victoria, in the far south of New South Wales. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.559 Now another one of these synergistic effects of climate change 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.080 that we're seeing on our coast that's affecting thousands of 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:10.760 kilometers and the future of hundreds of thousands of reef species. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.520 So with all of that already happening, what could be 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.000 done now to protect this marine life? 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.200 Yes, so the have was really triggered by the intense 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.040 marine heat wave we had in South Australia. We know 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.960 heat waves are becoming more frequent and more intense with 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.920 climate change, and so we really need to act on 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:36.000 climate change as an Australian community, as a global community, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:40.360 reduce our carbon emissions immediately. We can't avoid or get 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.679 around that. That has to be our number one priority. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:47.080 It's also obviously a long game. There's so much inertia 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.360 in the system, and so at a more regional local 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.360 context there are things we can also do. So looking 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.959 after our coastal waterways and minimizing nutrient pollution is really 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.240 important and there are several ways we can do that. 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.160 So we know our marine habitats play a really crucial 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.120 role in filtering the water. So kelp forests, seagrasses and 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:12.000 oyster reefs amazing filters of the water. They uptake nutrients 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.880 and keep our coastal water waste clear. So maintaining healthy 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.040 habitats is one of the best things we can do 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.960 to bolster the resilience of our coastal systems. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.640 And if those changes don't happen, what's at stake here? 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.400 This have has really shown what's at stake. You know, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.560 the alga bloom in South Australia is just crippled local 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.320 fishing industry, it's crippled the tourism industry, and it's had 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:43.839 an enormous emotional psychological effect on South Australian people and 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:48.680 the Australian society more broadly. And these impacts are very 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.040 real at a human level, They're very real and they 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:57.160 affect us personally. At an ecological environmental scale, we could 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.120 be losing thousands upon thousands of species that are unique, 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.559 that have been swimming these waters for literally tens of 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.640 millions of years, and they could be gone on our. 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:12.320 What well, Scott, thank you so much for speaking with 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:12.800 me today. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:13.760 Thanks very much. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:26.199 Ruby also in the news. 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.600 The Reserve Bank Board has delivered an interest rate cut 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.880 of twenty five basis points from three point eighty five 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.320 to three point six percent. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:36.000 The move comes. 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.920 After an unexpected decision last month to leave interest rates 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:39.440 on hold. 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.880 And Mark Latham has an abusive. 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.959 Obsession with a fellow MP, A court has heard. Independent 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.079 MP Alex Greenwich made the comments in court yesterday as 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.080 his legal fight against Latham continues. Last year, Greenwich sued 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:58.439 Latham for homosexual vilification and workplace harassment in one receiving 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.920 one hundred and forty thousand dollars in damages. Greenwich's lawyer 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.679 told the court yesterday that since then the independent MP 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.800 has been subject to further hatred and ridicule. Latham denies 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.199 breaching the new South Wales Anti Discrimination Act. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:12.559 I'm Ruby Jones. 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.200 This is seven am. Thanks for listening.