Scientists to answer questions on climate change impact on Tasmania

They outnumber Tasmanians by 1:36 million. Now these invasive visitors are creating havoc off the East Coast. Next month, leading Tasmanian scientists and researchers will hold a series of talks around the state to answer questions on climate change.

OCEAN MENACE: Long-spined sea urchins have created barrens on the East Coast since they were first found in Tasmanian waters in the 1970s. Picture: JOHN KEANE, Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies.

THEY creep along the ocean floor, devouring kelp beds and leaving a barren underwater desert behind them.

Invasive long-spined sea urchins are a menace along Tasmania’s East Coast and their numbers are increasing at an alarming rate.

Researchers estimate the population is more than 18 million – up from 11 million 15 years ago – with urchin barrens covering up to 15 per cent of reefs to a depth of 40m on the state’s open coastline from Eddystone Point to Tasman Island.

Experts say the spread of long-spined sea urchins can be attributed to Tasmania’s warming coastal waters, which now enable good breeding conditions as urchins push farther south.

The urchin issue is among the climate change topics that will be discussed at a series of talks around the state next month.

Curious Climate Tasmania is four live events where attendees can speak face-to-face with some of Tasmania’s leading scientists about climate change.

During June, Tasmanians submitted more than 200 climate-related questions for researchers to answer and the Curious Climate Tasmania team is ready to give answers.

Project-lead, Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) Professor Gretta Pecl said Tasmania had dozens of scientists and researchers working on climate change who were globally recognised in their fields.

“We wanted to engage with the public to allow them to tap into that local expertise to learn more about what they wanted to know about climate change,” Prof Pecl said.

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In findings on long-spined sea urchins released late last year, the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies’ Dr Scott Ling said ongoing climate change had made the East Coast “more and more favourable” for the urchins.

“In the absence of high abundances of large predators such as rock lobsters, urchins have established in large numbers and are destructively overgrazing kelp beds,” Dr Ling said.

“The 18 million urchins now on the East Coast have largely transformed some reefs to barren grounds that are essentially underwater deserts, devoid of other marine life, including important commercial species such as lobsters and abalone.”

Curious Climate Tasmania free events are:

QUEENSTOWN, Empire Hotel, 4-5.30pm, August 4.

LAUNCESTON, Rory Spence Lecture Theatre, School of Architecture and Design, Inveresk, 6- 7.30pm, August 6.

ST HELENS, Bayside Inn,
6- 7.30pm, August 7.

HOBART, Sir Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS Sandy Bay campus, 6-7.30pm, August 8.

More details at https://curiousclimate.org.au/

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