The State of the Ocean with Professor Peter Steinberg
Get to know the amazing Peter Steinberg in this week’s Ocean Impact Podcast episode ‘The State of the Ocean with Peter Steinberg’.
Peter Steinberg is a Professor of Biology at the University of New South Wales and was the inaugural Director and CEO of Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) from 2009-20. In this episode, released to coincide with World Oceans Week, Peter provides a snapshot of the state of Planet Ocean and in particular the importance of protecting the fragile edges where the sea meets the increasingly urbanised and industrialised coastline, as is the case with the iconic Sydney Harbour.
With SIMS nestled on the shore of Sydney Harbour just around the corner from OIO HQ in Manly, we thought we would use this opportunity to tell you a bit about Sydney and the brilliant initiatives Peter and his team have helped bring to life here.
Living Seawalls
Living Seawalls is a SIMS initiative sponsored by VOLVO that builds on years of Sydney-based marine green engineering research that shows retrofitting existing seawalls with habitat enhancing units can improve the ecological performance of artificial structures. Right now, the Living Seawalls team are investigating methods to scale up “greening seawalls” initiatives from centimeters to meters and and of adding multiple types of habitat enhancing tiles to a single seawalls, and monitoring the tiles over time to answer questions such as how different microhabitats on the tiles influence community development, or understanding the scales at which greening seawalls can enhance ecosystem function in Sydney Harbour.
Learn more about Living Seawalls here.
Operation Crayweed
Vast underwater forests have gone missing from the Sydney coastline, with repercussions for local fish, abalone, crayfish and coastal marine biodiversity.
Operation Crayweed is all about restoring these critically important underwater forests, which used to stretch abundantly from Port Macquarie all the way down to Tasmania. This particular initiative from SIMS provides you individually with the opportunity to contribute to their work as well.
Learn more about Operation Crayweed here
Operation Posidonia
Mighty Posidonia!
Seagrass meadows may not be the most attractive of marine habitats at first sight, but they are one of the most productive ecosystems on Planet Ocean. They provide food and shelter to myriad species of fish and marine invertebrates, such as Snapper, Luderick and Blue Swimmer Crab, but also to iconic creatures like Sea Horses.
Unfortunately, seagrasses like Posidonia have become severely threatened by human activities and have been declining at an alarming rate, with on average one soccer field vanishing every half hour. This is a truly devastating statistic, but not all hope is lost.
Find out more about what Peter and the team at SIMS are doing about it by following this link.
The Sydney Harbour Research Program
The Sydney Harbour Research Program comprises key research to explore, enhance and restore the diverse species and habitats within the harbour. Within this specific research program, there was a great report completed by Deloitte and SIMS entitled ‘Our Harbour Our Asset’ that provides an overview of economic values and activities associated with Sydney.
With Peter shortly stepping down from his role as Director and CEO of SIMS we want to send a special thank you to Peter for all his work in establishing and leading SIMS and supporting OIO and wish him the best of luck as he embarks on new endeavours.
Listen or watch the full podcast episode now by following these links:
