This sub-facility of the Integrated Marine Observing System Animal Tracking Facility (IMOS ATF) provides infrastructure to understand the distribution and movement of key focal marine species along the coast of Queensland. Deployment of a network of acoustic receivers in conjunction with the DAF Queensland Shark Control Program and collaborator installations provides a tracking platform that spans Queensland inshore coastal and reef environments. This infrastructure enhances existing arrays managed by other research groups to provide better coverage throughout Queensland. This new infrastructure was funded by the Department of Environment and Science, Queensland, and operated by AIMS as an IMOS project (Dec 2019-June 2023), with continuation of the array beneficial to record movements of animals fitted with 10-year tags.
Acoustic receivers were deployed primarily in coastal locations with >20 collaborator groups on existing/accessible infrastructure for maintenance. Of the 327 receivers total in Queensland, AIMS and direct collaborators maintain 134 receivers (as at June 2022, current locations indicated in yellow), spanning 16.7 degress of latitude from the far northern Great Barrier Reef to Qld/NSW border. Detections are recorded from animals tagged along Australia's east coast, and 812 animals were tagged between 2019-2023, comprising 511 from priority species (conservation concern, bather concern, and fishery importance) and 301 additional species, adding value to the project.
Management of this acoustic receiver array is in conjunction with several IMOS installations (Capricorn-Bunker reefs, Stradbroke Island, in New South Wales, and nationally), and other groups (JCU, DAF, DES, UQ, Biopixel Oceans Foundation, USC, Griffith University), and data from the Queensland installation is integrated into the IMOS ATF national database, Animal Tracking (aodn.org.au). Data recorded by receivers help define the extent and timing of movement of tagged individuals of a range of management-relevant species along the east coast of Queensland. This includes enabling estimates of home ranges, dispersal distance, residency times, and migration pathways. These data can be integrated across species and with data from beyond Queensland (i.e. movements into New South Wales), to improve our understanding of space use and distribution of key species.
