Giant kelp off eastern Tasmania. Images: Cayne Layton and Matt Doggett.
Dense, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) forests were once ubiquitous off Tasmania, but now only five per cent remain and they are listed by the Australian Government as an endangered marine community: the first such listing for a marine community in Australia.
Project co-leader Dr Ian McLeod of TropWATER, James Cook University at an Isognomon ephippium, (leaf oyster) reef in Hinchinbrook Channel, Queensland. Image: Ross Johnson