Ecological impacts of coastal cities

One creature's trash is another one's treasure, or so our Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities has found.

Submerged debris within Sydney Harbour is providing a rich habitat for a wide array of sea creatures including fish, crabs, sponges, sea tulips and sea squirts. Divers at Chowder Bay have noted that in areas cleared of rubbish, very little life remains.

With the help of additional funding of $30K over three years from Sydney Ports Corporation, the research will expand to other parts of the Harbour. Researchers will study whether the thriving species are native or introduced, and whether artificial structures have the same beneficial effects.

Many harbourside councils currently require developers to clean up the foreshore. While removing rubbish, even if it was decades old, has its merits, replacing the habitat with an equally effective artificial structure would be ideal, so that the biodiversity could be retained.

The Centre acknowledged the support of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust which provided a barge and enabled the team to clear a section of the bay in the early stages of the study about a year ago.

Detailed study will reveal whether natural sites are providing habitat for the same types of creatures as the old tyres and bits of rope.

A variety of artificial structures will also be tested, to see whether bottom-of-the-harbour dwellers find them as attractive a hangout as the rubble of the past.

The project is only one of a number being carried out by the centre, established within the School of Biological Sciences with the help of the Australian Research Council in 1997.