parks victoria technical series marine natural values study vol 2 ...

Parks Victoria Technical Series No. 79
Flinders and Twofold Shelf Bioregions Marine Natural Values Study
2.1.6 CURRENT RESEARCH AND MONITORING
Parks Victoria has established extensive marine monitoring and research programs for the
MPAs that address important management challenges, focussing both on improving
baseline knowledge of the MPAs as well as applied management questions not being
addressed by others. This knowledge will continue to enhance Parks Victoria’s capacity to
implement evidence-based management through addressing critical knowledge gaps. The
research and monitoring programs have been guided by the research themes outlined as
part of Parks Victoria’s Research Partners Panel (RPP) program, a Marine Research and
Monitoring Strategy 2007 - 2012 and Marine National Park and Marine Sanctuary Monitoring
Plan 2007 - 2012 (Power and Boxshall 2007). Much of the research has been undertaken as
part of the RPP program involving collaboration with various research institutions. The
research relevant to Wilsons Promontory MNP has been published in Parks Victoria’s
Technical Series available on Parks Victoria’s website (http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au). As
most research in the MNP has been carried out under permits issued by DSE, the permit
database was also used to identify relevant projects for this report (see Table 9 and
Appendix 2).
Wilsons Promontory MNP does not have an ongoing intertidal reef monitoring program as it
has limited intertidal reef area with relatively low human pressure. The shallow subtidal reef
monitoring program (SRMP, Edmunds and Hart 2003) in and around the Wilsons
Promontory MNP began in 1999. Since that time sites in the MNP and reference sites
outside of the MNP (Figure 6) have been surveyed over ten census events (Edmunds et al.
2003; Lindsay and Edmunds 2006; Edmunds et al. 2007). The monitoring involves
standardised underwater diver-mediated visual survey methods of macroalgae, invertebrates
and fish, generally in a depth less than ten metres (Edmunds and Hart 2003). The SRMP
monitors a specific suite of fish associated with reefs in shallow waters and is not designed
to assess non-reef associated shallow water fish nor is it designed to assess the suite of
species found in deeper water. Over 230 different species of biota have been observed
during the SRMP in, and around, Wilsons Promontory MNP (Appendix 1).
Preliminary analysis of the SRMP subtidal reef monitoring data to 2006 by Keough and
Carnell (2009) has assessed changes in the park since declaration by comparing subtidal
reef MNP sites to reference sites outside of the MNP (Figure 6). Limitations to the
preliminary analysis were the relatively short time since declaration (four years) and the
corresponding small data set (Keough and Carnell 2009). Preliminary analysis found there
were no significant differences in overall species richness and abundance between MNP
and reference sites post-declaration of the MNP (Keough and Carnell 2009). The seastar
Patiriella brevispina showed a convergence in abundance between MNP and non-MNP sites
since declaration (Keough and Carnell 2009). The toothbrush leatherjacket Acanthaluteres
vittiger, showed a general increase since the declaration, with a slightly greater abundance
in MNP sites. Herring cale Odax cyanomelas also showed an effect of MNP, with a decrease
in abundance in MNP sites. Magpie perch Cheilodactylus nigripes, blue-throated wrasse
Notolabrus tetricus and silver sweep Scorpis lineolata showed differences between east and
west coasts of Wilsons Promontory MNP that was unrelated to the MNP. Purple wrasse
Notolabrus fucicola displayed an increase in the difference between MNP and non-MNP
sites since declaration on the west coast, but not on the east coast (Keough and Carnell
2009).
29