A new pilot project our team has been involved with to stimulate dissolved oxygen levels in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour has successfully passed another milestone – and it could improve this last known habitat of the unique and endangered Maugean skate.
The Macquarie Harbour Oxygenation Project (MHOP) is designed to trial technology aimed at increasing oxygen levels in the harbour. Macquarie Harbour is naturally a low dissolved oxygen environment in the mid-bottom waters. However, dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour have also been influenced by salmonid aquaculture, natural and regulated river flows and climate change, and there are concerns around the impacts of previous declines in dissolved oxygen levels on the local marine ecology, including the endangered Maugean skate.
Find out more about this project on the MHOP project page and in this recent UTAS news article.
This project is a joint initiative of the Australian Government's Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) and Salmon Tasmania to support conservation efforts for the Maugean skate.
