Underwater Sydney

UNDERWATER

SYDNEY

This book is dedicated to our wonderful, supportive families who have always encouraged us to follow our passion for the ocean.

John Turnbull: My amazing family: Jane, Adele, Olivia and Emilia Turnbull

Inke Falkner: My parents Doris and Horst Falkner, my sister Kerstin and my love Dominick ter Huurne

UNDERWATER

SYDNEY

INKE FALKNER AND JOHN TURNBULL

© Text: Inke Falkner 2019

© Images and captions: John Turnbull 2019

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO Publishing for all permission requests.

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ISBN: 9781486311187 (pbk.)

ISBN: 9781486311194 (epdf)

ISBN: 9781486311200 (epub)

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Front cover: Port Jackson shark

Back cover: (left to right) Eastern blue groper, red cuttlefish, Sydney Harbour, weedy seadragon

All photographs are by John Turnbull unless otherwise specified

Edited by Joy Window (Living Language)

Cover design by Andrew Weatherill

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Foreword

Sydneysiders instinctively recognise that something magical – and precious – lies beneath the sparkling waters of our harbour, one of the largest, most spectacular and most biologically diverse natural harbours on earth. My own favourite harbour diving spot, beneath the steep sandstone cliffs of the ‘heads’ that mark the wide opening to the Pacific Ocean, epitomises what makes our harbour so special.

Jumping from a boat at the bottom of North Head, I love to follow the cliff face down, underwater. I’m quickly 30 metres below the surface, among sponge gardens and sea squirts that undulate like decorative bunches of flowers. The huge blue gropers never fail to circle in for a look, their thick lips nibbling inquisitively, baring pointy, crooked teeth. No matter how many times I dive here, the magic never diminishes. Nor do I ever forget that I’m swimming below a big, busy, modern city.

As a marine ecologist, I see the sponge gardens of the heads as an extraordinary living link between a dynamic city of some five million people and the harbour’s complex ecosystems.

This is, of course, a fragile relationship. Only by better understanding Sydney’s marine environment – and how it interacts with the people and processes of this humming economic hub – can we protect and nurture it into the future.

Underwater Sydney takes us on a fascinating, inspiring and important journey into this unique underwater world. While Sydney’s Opera House, Harbour Bridge and famous beaches are recognised worldwide, this beautiful book dips below the surface to reveal a less familiar world.

As a drowned river valley, first carved into Hawkesbury sandstone some 25–29 million years ago, then filled by rising seawaters 6000 to 17 000 years ago, Sydney Harbour’s geographical diversity is notable. Its numerous sandy bays, steep rocky shores, sandstone cliffs, rock pools, deep blue channels and sparkling turquoise shallows lend it its exceptional natural beauty. From the shore to the depths, this complex natural underwater architecture supports a dazzling array of natural habitats, from mangroves and saltmarshes to rocky reefs, sandy seafloors and seagrass meadows and the fascinating rock pools that come and go as the tides rise and fall over the rocky shores and coastal rock shelves. Those habitats in turn support very high biodiversity.

Even today, after centuries of settlement, industrialisation and development, Sydney Harbour has many more species of fish – 586 recorded to date – than more pristine estuaries. And although about half of the extensive shoreline of Sydney Harbour has been altered by artificial structures, the harbour remains perhaps the most biologically diverse port in the world. This wonderful expanse of water shows us that a city can exist side by side with nature.

How do we value such an extraordinary asset, an asset that supports unique marine ecosystems at the same time as it helps power the economic engine of Australia’s largest city and supports the well-being and social interaction of residents and visitors? One recent research project suggested that approximately $43 billion was a reasonable starting point, taking into account everything from the ports and trade to tourism, cultural heritage, coastal access, boating, swimmable beaches and waterfront parks.

Whatever the figure, Sydney Harbour is a genuine gem that is worthy of our effort and care.

Sydney Harbour has been my natural laboratory and my studies have given me some cause for optimism. Since the 1970s, major efforts to clean up industrial pollution and to protect the waters and the ecosystems that rely on them from further pollution have led to significant improvements in water quality. I’ve seen oyster beds regrow along the intertidal zone and watched as green waters have become increasingly clear. All this while the city’s economy and social life have continued to thrive.

I’ve focused much of my own research around this wonderful harbour and, with a large team of collaborators, we are building an unprecedented knowledge bank to inform the future. But, there are still many questions to be answered. Perhaps, more than anything else, we need to connect the dots. We don’t yet truly understand how the harbour’s complex and greatly varied environments and ecosystems function and how they interact with each other, or how they then interact or co-exist with the city above.

Such insights are more important than ever before. New threats are building as the climate changes and waters warm, new species are arriving every day from the north, more frequent extreme weather events batter the coast and debris and microplastics find their way into natural water systems with as yet unknown results. We also know that past industries have left behind a toxic legacy of heavy metals and other contaminants locked in the harbour’s silty seafloor. This is a challenge for all of us: governments, businesses, researchers and the community.

Underwater Sydney reveals that we have much to celebrate today and introduces us to what it will take to protect this remarkable harbour for tomorrow. Perhaps more than anything else, this wonderful book is a call to ‘get out there’ – to swim, snorkel, dive, learn and enjoy!

Professor Emma L Johnston AO

Contents

Foreword

About the authors

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Intertidal rocky shores

Underwater forests

Sponge gardens

Beaches and seagrass meadows

Mud and mangroves

Novel habitats

Ocean travellers and visitors

The future of Sydney Harbour

Underwater photography

What can I do?

References

Index

About the authors

Inke Falkner is a marine ecologist who focuses on creative science and environmental education. In her role as Community Outreach Coordinator at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, she developed and established an extensive marine science program for primary and high school students focusing on Sydney Harbour. She also curated the content for the Institute’s Discovery Centre, and ran educational harbour cruises and foreshore walks featuring the amazing underwater world of Sydney Harbour. Having moved to the Southern Tablelands, New South Wales, she is now the Program Coordinator at the Australian National University’s Kioloa Coastal Campus. In her spare time Inke works as a freelance science writer.

John Turnbull is a marine ecologist, social scientist, and passionate underwater photographer. John has dived extensively in Sydney Harbour and coastline and knows their inhabitants extremely well. His delightful and exciting photographs bring this book to life. A few years ago, John traded a life in the business sector to pursue his passion for marine conservation, and is currently researching the relationship between humans, nature and stewardship of the marine environment at the University of New South Wales. You can visit John’s website or photo stream www.marineexplorer.org/ and www.flickr.com/photos/johnwturnbull/ for some examples of his extraordinary work.

Acknowledgements

We, the authors, acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of this place we now call Sydney and we pay our respect to Elders past, present and future.

This book would not have been possible without the work of so many scientists who have spent years studying Australia’s extraordinary temperate coast and the underwater communities of Sydney Harbour and surrounds. All information presented in this book is based on their work.

A special thank you must go to our colleagues who reviewed individual chapters and provided great feedback and advice:

Introduction: Dr Pat Hutchings and Dr Carol Langley

Intertidal rocky shores: Dr Tony Underwood

Underwater forests: Dr David Booth, Dr Geoffrey Liggins and Dr Carol Langley

Sponge gardens: Dr Nathan Knott and Dr Stephen Smith

Beaches and seagrass meadows: Dr