JURIEN BAY

Jurien Bay is located 275km north of Perth, on the mid-west coast. The coastal waters off Jurien include a Marine Park, encompassing waters between Wedge Island and Green Head. The Jurien Bay marine environment is highly diverse, and is home to a wide variety of species, including sea lions and sea birds on the many offshore islands. Limestone reef and seagrass habitats in the area support a diverse fish and invertebrate fauna, and a local crayfishing industry is based around the Western Rock Lobster (Panulirus cygnus).

The Marine Futures project has now mapped and sampled benthic and fish diversity in around 200 square kilometres off Jurien Bay, including around the offshore islands (sites shown right).  

UPDATE:

The hydroacoustic and towed video surveys are complete for the two Jurien (east and west) sites as illustrated in the above diagram. Using these two data sets the spatial modelling team have now modelled over 230 square kilometres, developing full coverage maps for this site. An example of the maps is shown (right). 

Following the development of the habitat maps, the team have now analysed biodiversity information collected from 18 research trawls, over 800 photodrops and 160 baited camera (BRUV) drops.

Please see the data downloading website (www.marinefutures.info) for the finished outputs from this study location. In addition to the Mapping, Biodiversity and Human Use team reports for the whole project, each location also has a selection of google earth maps, educational underwater clips and easy-to-use interactive excel charts which combine the spatial and biodiversity information.