Science that can only be delivered by working
collaboratively respecting valuing and using each other's insights and knowledge.
Today we held our inaugural Antarctic science Symposium here in Canberra
and we really had the intention of bringing together the policy makers,
the decision makers and the scientists so that we're developing a science program
that can directly inform their evidence-based decision needs.
I think there'll be a shift away from putting us in small boats and putting
us on the water to get close to whales. So I think through the use of drones we
can do a lot of the work remotely, flying the drone from the vessel and I think that
adds an element of safer practice to what we do and it's better for us it's better
for the whales so I think drones will be a huge component of our work moving forward.
East Antarctica, The Australian Territory has a huge Coastline. It's over four and
a half thousand kilometers. Pretty much everything we know about marine life on
the sea floor and the coast comes from just two places, Casey and Davis station. We've
ever even really had a look at Mawson where we've had a station for 50 years
It's just a golden opportunity for exploration and so I'm really enthusiastic about where we
can go what we can do in order to find the dragons. People always used to put
on maps saying there be dragons well let's go out and find them.
The Antarctic
climate program is aimed at understanding the role that Antarctica plays in the
global climate system. We know that this is fundamentally important that there are
crucial things to do with sea level rise, with weather and storms and climate the
southern hemisphere for example. But they're also important gaps in our
knowledge that prevent us from being able to make the best predictions and forecasts
possible so essentially it's research to understand Antarctica and climate.
Macquarie
island is such a story of environmental optimism and it's really important that we tell these
stories and that people understand that there is hope and it really showcases particularly
around invasive species or feral animals that if we put the time and effort into
it can happen anywhere as long as there's a commitment so in Australia we have issues
with feral animals and we can tackle those problems and we can turn back the damage we
can turn back the clock and help native species Thrive and come back from the brink I suppose.
We need to understand
much more about East Antarctica so that we can understand status and Trends in
how is the environment responding to climate change what's happening to the biodiversity.