Nov 11 2013
Award Winning Lyngbya Research
Lyngbya is a cyanobacteria that grows quickly when fed nutrients that can come from wastewater, fertilisers, animal faecies and garden waste.
A team of scientists headed by Assoc Professor Ryan Vogwill at the University of Western Australia have won an outstanding award. They have been working with the Department of Parks Wildlife staff in Broome, Yawuru Rangers, RBWG and volunteers from Broome community to help us understand why Lyngbya blooms have been occurring in Roebuck Bay in recent years.
The Broome Lyngbya Taskforce won the award for ‘bringing together the community to discover the role of nutrient inputs in the proliferation of noxious algae in Roebuck Bay’.
Nov 5 2013
Commercial fishing ends In Roebuck Bay
All smiles for rec fishers in Broome, with commercial gillnetting in Roebuck Bay ending.
There has been a big announcement today by the State Government that commercial gillnetting in Roebuck Bay will cease by the end of the current fishing year.
Threadfin salmon (Blue nose and Giant) in Roebuck Bay have very localised genetic population, this means they live, eat and breed their whole life in the bay. Hear the story on the ABC in Broome »
Nov 4 2013
Shorebirds in peril
Broome’s migratory shorebirds are struggling to find food on their annual breeding migration due to industrial developments on their staging grounds on the Yellow Sea. © Jan van de Kam.
Roebuck Bay’s shorebirds are an inspiration for their ability to navigate and fly 10,000kms each year to breed in the Arctic Circle. However their migration is under threat as described in the Weekend Australian by Environment Editor Graham Lloyd. Broome’s shorebird expert Chris Hassell is quoted in the story. To read more about the migration and situation in the Yellow Sea, get hold of the book, Invisible Connections by Jan van der Kam from Broome Bird Observatory and Kimberley Bookshop »