Monday, 14th July Australian Marine Sciences Association 2025 Conference

The panel discussion will be held between: 

Prof Emma Lee OAM - Federation University
Dr Anthony Boxhall - Science into Action
Dr James Fitzsimons - The Nature Conservancy
Dr Kathleen McInnes - CSIRO

The opening plenary session of the conference will be a panel discussion on ‘Marine science to drive change”. The discussion will explore positive solutions and cross-discipline collaborations, setting the scene for the conference theme Harmony in Marine Systems. The panel members are science leaders with experience in management, policy, education, and government.

• Closing the science-practice gap: A standardised approach for restoring coastal wetlands in Victoria - Phebe Fidge
• To Bury or not to Bury? Improving the Yield of Seed-based Seagrass Restoration for the Tropical Species Thalassia hemprichii. - Evie Furness
• Enhanced coral photosymbionts for reef restoration: state of intervention and pathways to implementation - Wing Yan Chan
• Enhancement of coral-associated fish communities can support reef restoration - Rohan Brooker
• Optimising hybrid approaches for mangrove restoration - Amanda Hsiung
• Reducing disturbance of wetlands by managing ungulates — developing a new carbon abatement method for the Australian market - Jack W Hill
• What Shapes Mangrove Restoration Support In The Great Barrier Reef? - Maria Palacios
• Overcoming barriers to seagrass restoration - Raphael Clement

12:18PM - Discussion

• Development of a Low-cost Hydrophone for Research, Education, and Citizen Science - Lucille Chapuis
• Advancing Snapper Stock Assessment with Autonomous Hydroacoustic Surveys - Hui Sheng Lim
• Opportunity knocks - Enhancing coastal marine monitoring using merchant vessels - Randall Lee
• Spatiotemporal shifts in California’s mesophotic benthic sessile communities following the 2014-2016 northeast Pacific marine heatwave - Rachel Wong
• Human and Multi-Autonomous Platform Collaboration for Scaling Ocean Science and Conservation - Matthew Dunbabin
• Use of autonomous vessels for coral reef monitoring – results from a novel Reef-ASV. - De’vereux Harvey
• Seeker AUV: a hover-capable, seafloor imaging AUV. - Jackson Shields

12:18PM - Discussion

• Lifting the lid on Marine Heatwaves - Neil Malan
• Proteomic characterisation of the secretome of thermally stressed Acropora millepora - Rianna T Collins
• Marine invertebrates in a time of rapid environmental change - Sue-Ann Watson
• Tackling Centrostephanus rodgersii: Modelling Range Extension and Management Across the Eastern Great Southern Reef - Julia C Sobol
• Unprecedented mass coral bleaching along the Western Australian coast during the 2024/2025 summer period - Thomas Holmes
• Salty shapeshifter: Responses of Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to Long-term Salinity Changes - Sonja I. Repetti
• The response of Sydney rock oysters to future predictions of Marine Heatwaves and freshening  - Jasmine Glencross
• You only die once: a pathway to juvenile nekton death might include subtle differences in sediment albedo - Vicki Bennion

12:24 PM - Discussion

• Advancing Ocean Literacy in Australia: Insights from AMSA 2024 and Next Steps - Prue Francis
• Establishing a National Baseline for Ocean Literacy in Australia: A Critical Step Towards Sustainable Ocean Stewardship - Consuelo Quevedo
• ‘Seaweed = good, blue-green algae = bad’ : Algal Attitudes and Awareness in Finland and Australia  - Sonja I. Repetti
• Navigating the Blue: Ocean Identity, Marine Citizenship, and Ocean Literacy in the Blue Humanities - Maxine Newlands
• The role of museums in achieving national ocean literacy   - Anna Gregory
• Enhancing Traditional Owner scientific literacy for better Reef protection partnerships - Bob Muir and Cass Hunter
•   Creating a global classroom to improve student learning in marine biology   - Allyson O'Brien
• Connecting Knowledge Systems: Delivering a Dugong and Seagrass Education Initiative in Remote Communities Along the Great Barrier Reef - Luisa Schramm
• From Coral Cover to Climate Denial: Media Narratives, Climate Communication & Public Perception of Reef Risks - Gretta Pecl
• CAPSTAN sea training program: partnering to transform marine science education - Ben Arthur

• Advancing marine pest management, how far have we come and where are we going? - Craig Sherman
• Going south? Establishment of invasive, tropical pearl oysters in the (temperate) gulfs of South Australia. - Neve Skinner
• Applying a Triage Approach to Marine Biosecurity: Didemnum vexillum incursion in Western Australia as a Case Study - Matthew Hewitt
• The national biosecurity response to the carpet sea squirt (Didemnum vexillum)  - Cian Foster-Thorpe
• The NSW Marine Pest Surveillance Program: forecasting for continuous improvements - Gwenael Cadiou
• Autotomy in the northern Pacific seastar (Asterias amurensis), with notes on condition from marine protected areas - Andrew P Christie
• The Didemnum Dilemma: Understanding and controlling Didemnum vexillum in Australia - Anjali Gopakumar

12:24PM - Discussion

• Applying life cycle informed restoration to hybrid mangrove living shorelines  - Roma Bodycomb
• Future-proofing coral reefs via bacterial manipulation - Talisa Doering
• Restoring the Tropical Seagrass Thalassia hemprichii From the Brink of Functional Extinction in the Cocos Keeling Islands - Michael A Rasheed
• Testing the facilitative effect of seagrass and mangroves on the survival and growth of intertidal Ostrea angasi - Kathy Overton
• Tropical seagrass restoration: novel approaches for challenging environments - Timothy Smith
• Restoring mangrove ecosystems alongside industrial seawalls; findings from a Living Seawall project in Queensland - Rory Mulloy
• Variable Assemblage Responses to Habitat Characteristics in Hybrid Mangrove Living Shorelines - Sophie C. Y. Chan
• Rebuilding (with) nature: Leveraging blue carbon ecosystem restoration for regenerative tourism - Ahalya Suresh

2:48PM - Discussion

• Dolphin Direction: Spatio-temporal monitoring of a critically endangered dolphin throughout Port Phillip Bay using passive acoustic monitoring. - Amber Crittenden
• Satellite Tagging Reveal Movements and Occupancy Patterns of Southern Right Whales in Southern Australian Waters and the Southern Ocean. - Claire Barr
• Multi-method tagging reveals cross-jurisdictional and seasonal movements of yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) - Belinda Goddard
• Factors influencing prey encounter and hunting success in a large marine predator, the Australian fur seal - Saia Bartes
• A new method to study in-situ water flow at small fish-sized scales - Casey L Bowden
• IMOS Australian Animal Acoustic Telemetry Database: the benefits of a continental-scale network - Yuri Niella
• Post-release monitoring: assessing rehabilitation success in green sea turtles affected by disease and habitat degradation - Jacob JB Bowtell

2:36 PM - Discussion

• From Stress to Recovery: Understanding the Reversibility of Chronic Heat Exposure in Juvenile Zebrafish (Danio rerio) - Monique Adzijovski
• The energetic cost of warming: Predicting fish consumption and invertebrate abundance under ocean warming - Dominique G. Maucieri
• Thermal Tolerance Data can be Used to Forewarn Species Response to Climate Impacts at Both Broad and Local Scales  - Nicole Said
• Love letter to an endangered sea star - Elizabeth Castle
• Thermal tolerance of Posidonia australis seedlings from regions exposed to different environmental temperatures along the Western Australian coast - Clement Mathieu Mr TREMBLIN
• Comprehensive analysis of the Coral Metabolome directed at Understanding Climate Resilience - Evan Heit
• Understanding the impacts of Cyclone Jasper on coastal marine habitats in Far North Queensland - Abbi Scott

2:48PM - Discussion

• Secret Signals: The novel use of pheromones as management for invasive marine species - Morgan R Ellis
• Building marine biosecurity awareness through social science and partnerships - Nat Higgins
• Engaging the marine science community in national strategic management of marine pests - Rene T Campbell
• Marine Pest Settlement Array and eDNA Surveillance: The pursuit of a cost-effective and operationally practical surveillance tool for remote ports across northern Australia. - Evan Rees
• Aerial Photogrammetry in the Coral Sea Marine Park - Darren Phillips
• Leveraging Collaboration to Enhance Marine Pest eDNA Surveillance Capacity - Jayden Zieth
• Novel Strategies to Combat HaHV-1 in Farmed Abalone - Danielle Ackerly
• Marine Pest surveillance in the Northern Territory - Brett Herbert
• Regulating Ballast Water to Prevent the Spread of Marine Species and Pathogens: Current Challenges and Future Research Directions - Alexandra MR McKenzie

• Optimizing Marine Forest Restoration in Southern Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia. - Jacqui B Pocklington
• The importance of dispersal and herbivory in shaping the recruitment of Sargassum on an inshore reef in the central Great Barrier Reef - Martina Burgo
• Photosynthesis in Soft Corals - Raymond J. Dr RITCHIE
• Improved Understanding of Risks from Reef Interventions - Rachel Pears
• What Factors are Critical in Re-stocking Populations or Restoring Ecosystems? An Abalone Example. - Robert W Day
• Advancing Marine Habitat Restoration in Urban Areas Requires a New Research Paradigm - Ryan Baring
• Making reef restoration count - Ken RN Anthony
• Introducing the Octocoral Finder - Russell Kelley

• Symbiodiniaceae Communities in Giant Clams (Mollusca: Tridacninae) of the Indian Ocean  - Meggan Miller
• Isolation and microbiome characterisation of the stony coral symbiosome - Laura Geissler
• Bacteriophage Barricade: Evidence for Bacteriophage-Mediated Antibacterial Immunity in Shark Epidermis  - Ryan D Hesse
• Does Restoration of Posidonia australis Seagrass Meadows Influence Sediment Microbial Communities? - Natalie Coy
• The role of belowground microbial communities in seagrass species interactions and succession - Josee Hart
• Advanced Metabolomic Platforms Reveal Metabolic Plasticity in Coral Symbionts Under Environmental Stress - Vinzenz VH Hofferek
• Elasmobranch Epidermal Microbiomes: Inital Disruption followed by Stabilization in Response to Seasonal Temperature Shifts - Elizabeth Dinsdale
• Photosynthesis of Intertidal Cyanobacterial Mats in Fresh to Hypersaline Waters - Konara Mudiyanselage Shashikala Malmee Gangathilaka

• Mitigating Climate Change Impacts on Asparagopsis: Strategies for Enhanced Growth and Halogenated Compound Production - Asri Pratitis
• Maladaptation and genetic rescue across 40 years of climate change - Georgina Wood
• Mapping global ocean biodiversity with OBIS (UNESCO IODE Ocean Biodiversity Information System) - Katherine Tattersall
• Surviving the Times: 50 Years of Population Dynamics of Australian Migratory Shorebirds - Tobias Ross
• Transgenerational plasticity increases the resilience of early life-history stages of the Sydney Rock Oyster, Saccostrea glomerata to warming - Laura Parker
• Developing Upwelling Indices for Ecological Studies in the Bonney Upwelling System, Australia - Alex Shute
• Identifying functional refugia for inshore coral reefs in a changing climate - Christopher Henderson

4:54PM - Discussion

• Human Acts:  Harmonising narratives of people and the Great Barrier Reef - Michelle Dyer
• Reefs, people and power. Rethinking coral reef dependence.  - Bridget Mullany
• Applying a Framework for Integrating Socio-Economic and Biophysical Information for Effective Management of the Great Barrier Reef. - Anthea Coggan
• What use is human dimension monitoring for marine resource management? - Matt Curnock
• Development of a Community Reef Stewardship Monitoring Toolkit - Lessons and Insights  - Tracy Schultz
• Expanding the Blue Humanities in Australia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Great Barrier Reef - Maxine Newlands
• You design the marine park then: a live demonstration of choice experiments and their potential use for marine park design on the Great Southern Reef - Matthew Navarro

• Finding Space: Strategic Spatial Socio-Ecological Assessment to Support Emerging Offshore Activities in Australia - Myriam Lacharite
• SAFE and FAIR data solutions: A demonstration of the SAFE to inform marine habitat benchmarks to study the cumulative impacts of offshore wind farms - Harrison A Carmody
• Policy implications for offshore renewable energy in Australia: Lessons from MSP to support the energy transition - Laura Griffiths
• How are our MPAs doing? Evaluating effectiveness of Australia’s Marine Parks. - Steffan A Howe
• Seascape diversity and configuration shape habitat selection across coastal nurseries - Jesse Mosman
• Assessing 20 years of biodiversity change in Victorian Marine Protected Areas  - Joel Williams
• Making marine data more assessment ready - Eduardo Klein
• Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Marine Fauna in the Otway Basin using Marine Mammal Observer data - Nicolas Mafla
• A framework to assess trade-offs in environmental conditions and financial risk for offshore industry development - Jackson Stockbridge

Please add this session to your registration if attending for catering purposes. 

• Dynamic Developmental Shifts in the Microbiome of the Marine Sponge Amphimedon queenslandica   - Sophie Middleton
• Safeguarding Australia's Great Southern Reef  - emma church
• Bioplastics: A Catch-22 for Marine Invertebrates?  - Sophie Middleton
• Marine Heatwaves: Impacts on Sub-tropical Intertidal Rocky Shores   - Ella Staub
• Morphometric measurements of the nutritive condition of coastal dolphins in Southeast Queensland, Australia, through the use of drone-based photogrammetry - Jessica M Buckman
• Higher Temperatures Affect the Growth and AMR Dynamics of Elasmobranch Microbes - Jasmine Ascensio
• Exploring social complexity in a marine protected area: users, values, and activities in Yawuru Nagulagun/ Roebuck Bay Marine Park - Danielle Godwin
• New approaches for mapping the lost subtidal oyster reefs of Moreton Bay - Edward J Hay
• Supporting decisions in Victoria’s marine and coastal environment - Katelyn McAdams
• Spatial metabolomics to decipher interactions between corals and their microalgal endosymbionts - Mei-Chen Liu
• People, Culture, Collaboration and Governance to Restore Coastal Ecosystems - Michelle M Holian
• Impact of Anthropogenic and Environmental Variables on the Composition and Distribution of Fish Assemblages in Victoria - Grace Cosgriff-Camm
• The use of low power instrumentation and inductive mooring line modems to undertake real-time under ice measurements - success and challenges - Stef Stimson
• New sea-level reconstructions from southeastern Australia - Juliet Sefton
• Skin microbiome shifts under changing environmental conditions in coastal Elasmobranchs - Emma Kerr
• Enhancing Marine Spatial Planning through Integrated Seabed Mapping and Science Communication - Donna-marie Audas
• Are we shark bait? The natural threats and survivability of dolphins in south-east Queensland - Georgina Hume
• Developing a cryopreservation protocol for gene banking of the marine macroalga Cystophora subfarcinata - Fiona McQueen
• Seasonality, Wind and Characteristics of Plastic Polymer Accumulation on Western Australia's South Coast - Harriet Paterson
• Drone-based monitoring of dugongs, turtles and marine megafauna in Mandubarra Sea Country - Jayden Crump
• ROS-scavenging Abilities of Bacterial Candidates Earmarked for Enhancing Coral Thermal Tolerance - Luanny Martins Fernandes
• What's on the menu? Species diversity, quantity, and relative importance of prey eaten by Tursiops aduncus, Sousa sahulensis, and Delphinus delphis in Southeast Queensland using stomach content analysis - Alexis Levengood
• Queensland Marine Turtle Network Supporting Citizen Science Programs - Sean Williamson
• Fish Community Dynamics Across Different Habitats in Marra Sea Country and Management Implications - Alex Carter and Tim Smith
• Fish Community Composition of Southern Australia Micro-Estuaries - Noah Morris
• Bioaccumulation of metals in the critically endangered Maugean skate, Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania. - Julie Mondon
• Photosynthesis and Photosynthetic Electron Transport in the soft coral Sinularia spp and its zooxanthellae. - Raymond J. RITCHIE
• Eastern Maar assert their place in caring for Koontapool (southern right whale) and Sea Country - Mandy Watson
• Macroplastic Pollution in Small Islands of Eastern Indonesia: Quantifying the Challenge - Khamsiah Achmad
• Aquatic bite club: canine tooth structure and function in aquatic mammals - Lochlan A Paterson-Crisp
• Life Upstream: Uncovering the Palaeoecology of the Australian Lake Dolphin - Christopher D Vournazos
• Marine debris: An ecological trap for nest building flightless cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi) in the Galápagos Archipelago. - Bridget Toohey
• Seagrass mapping, monitoring and restoration projects with Indigenous land and sea rangers on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.  - Will Hamill
• Modelling Across Scales with COMPAS: a 3d Unstructured Ocean Model for Regional and Coastal Prediction - Darren Engwirda
• Minderoo OceanOmics Centre at UWA: Developing and applying genomics tools to transform biodiversity discovery and conservation - Sang Hunyh
• Co-designing training materials with Indigenous Ranger groups for seagrass monitoring in northern Australia - Anna M. Frouws
• The Great Barrier Reef Dolphin Project: an Example of a successful partnership between First Nations people and scientific expert - Helen Penrose
• Harmonizing cultural heritage and marine science: a collaborative monitoring framework for the Lalang-gaddam marine park (2024–2028) - Maria Sandoval
• Next Generation Reef Restoration: Advancing Marine Restoration Through Novel Materials - Beth O'Sullivan
• Enhancing Seedling Establishment through Plant Growth Regulators in Posidonia angustifolia - Sophia Arlett Reinecke
• Zooming in: An evaluation of Port Phillip Bay’s coastline to narrow in on opportunities for nature-based coastal protection - Mia Gustavsson
• A primer for cumulative impact assessments to bridge the research implementation gap - Jackson Stockbridge
• The art of writing scientific articles for young readers: Our article about dugongs being underwater detectives that help us protect seagrass - Caitlyn O'Dea
• Putting sawfishes back on the map: identifying current hotspots and threats to extant populations - Veronika N Biskis
• Pressures and Predation: Effects of Human Activity and Elasmobranch Presence on Teleost Fish Assemblages - Charlie Darcy
• Microbiome and health: sequencing the gut microbiome of green sea turtles suffering from emerging gastrointestinal disease - Jacob Bowtell