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

• 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

2:48 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

Our popular POSTER SCAVENGER HUNT is back!

Delegates will follow clues to find specific posters, meet the presenters, and go in the draw to win fun prizes. It’s a great way to spark meaningful discussions around your research.

Enter Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mK_XuDoN-RgfkYv9Stmz0zW8gapaSNUWh5zrTrSTo8g/viewform?edit_requested=true

• Chat with the poster presenters and find the answers to the prompts
• Win prizes

Entries close at the end of Thursday Morning Tea session. A SECOND POSTER SESSION during Thursday morning tea (10:30am–11:30am) is another fantastic chance to connect with poster presenters and answer all the prompts before you miss your chance to win the exciting prizes.

This year, poster presenters will wear WHITE LANYARDS making it easy for delegates to spot and connect with you. All other delegates will wear navy lanyards. 

• 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
• 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 Huynh
• 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

Join us at The Duke of Wellington for a night of karaoke and nibbles!