Sea simulator to solve the ocean’s mysteries

Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr and Senator for Queensland Jan McLucas yesterday opened the National Sea Simulator (SeaSim) at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville.

The $37 million research aquarium will enable Australian scientists to recreate ocean conditions and study how both human activities and natural events will affect our marine environment in the future. It is said to be more accurate at replicating the conditions of the open ocean, a reef lagoon or flooding rivers than any other facility in the world.

AIMS marine researcher Mike Hall explained, “When we started planning SeaSim we visited over 40 marine aquariums around the world to identify key attributes of the perfect research facility. What we’ve built takes the best in the world and adds new technologies and an incredible level of automation and control.”

The federal government provided more than $27 million for the project through the Education Investment Fund, with AIMS also investing close to $10 million in Commonwealth funding to the project. Senator Carr said the federal funding was provided because it is essential for Australia to better understand the impact of events such as ocean warming and acidification, outbreaks of natural predators such as the crown-of-thorns starfish, and pollution.

He noted the importance of the marine industries to Australia, given that we have “the most extensive territorial waters of any nation in the world”. With marine industries contributing over $40 billion to the economy, and our standards of living depending on both viable industries and sustainable resource management, he said public science and research agencies like AIMS are “the most invaluable assets we have in terms of getting this balance right based on the best available evidence”.

Hall said that each SeaSim tank allows researchers to control many parameters - “from water temperature, to ocean acidification, to salinity, to lighting, to nutrients and water quality, etc”. Through these, it will allow marine scientists to test observations, assumptions and models, allowing “the development of technologies to assist aquaculture and fisheries management”.

Projects planned for the simulator include:

• Fighting the crown-of-thorns starfish: understanding why its populations periodically boom, leading to massive reef destruction; and using the chemicals secreted by the starfish against them to make their physical removal easier.
• Creating small reef communities in which to induce the spawning of many coral species, currently difficult to study due to the synchronised spawning being an annual event.
• Understanding what factors contribute to reef survivability during coral bleaching; a growing threat to coral reefs worldwide which is associated with rising sea temperatures. These factors need to be built into researchers’ computer models.
• Developing a ‘model’ coral that will do for marine science what the worm C. elegans, the fruit fly, the mouse and other model organisms have done for our understanding of human biology.
• Modelling the impact of sediment, pollution, dredging and other water quality factors on marine life.

Senator McLucas said the facility “will place AIMS, and therefore Australia, at the forefront of this field”, building a “bridge between the sea and the lab” and providing a drawcard for both local and international researchers.

AIMS CEO John Gunn said SeaSim will “consolidate Townsville’s growing reputation as a global hub for tropical marine research and transform our capacity to provide the science that government, industry and the community need to make informed decisions about how we use and protect the oceans”.