AMPS Atlas
This is a compilation of all the images in this Atlas. To access images from particular marine parks, navigate to the image gallery on each marine park page.
Reef Life Survey volunteer swimming along 50 metre transect recording fish diversity and abundance. Ruperts Reef, Lord Howe Island Marine Park, New South Wales. The Reef Life Survey program is a volunteer network of highly trained divers, and is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the new Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef, and other Australian Marine Parks.
by Reef Life Survey
School of parrotfish over typical reef habitat of Houtman Abrolhos islands of Western Australia - taken as part of the global Reef Life Survey dataset. The Reef Life Survey program is a volunteer network of highly trained divers, and is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and other Australian Marine Parks such as the Cod Grounds.
by Reef Life Survey
A sea cucumber specimen found on an apprehended Foreign Fishing Vessel.
by Parks Australia
Sea snake (Aipysurus laevis) on Carpentaria Reef in the Gulf of Carpentaria Marine Park.
by Reef Life Survey
This image shows a seagrass bed in the Geograph Bay Marine Park, captured from a BRUVS survey. The seagrass beds of Geographe Bay are one of the largest meadows recorded in Australia, extending into water depths of up to 50 metres. Globally, seagrasses are believed to be the third most valuable ecosystem in the world. Seagrass beds prevent erosion of the sea bottom, reduce carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and support diverse communities of marine animals such as invertebrates, fish, crabs, turtles, mammals and birds by providing food and shelter. Seagrasses enhance overall marine biodiversity and provide ecological functions and a variety of services to humans.
by Curtin University - Fish Ecology Laboratory
A pristine benthic coral community showing stony and soft corals, with numerous sea urchins and feather stars living on and in a matrix of old stony coral matrix (1202 metres depth). These fauna are typical of seamount habitats in never-trawled regions of the Huon Marine Park.
by CSIRO
Still image of Pentagonaster dubeni (seastar) taken during underwater visual census surveys in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia in 2008 as part of the Reef Life Survey program. This volunteer network of highly trained divers is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and other Australian Marine Parks such as the Cod Grounds Marine Park.
by Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
Reef Life Survey volunteer swimming along 50 metre transect recording fish diversity and abundance. The Reef Life Survey program is a volunteer network of highly trained divers, and is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and other Australian Marine Parks such as the Cod Grounds.
by Reef Life Survey
Soft coral on Carpentaria Shoal in the Gulf of Carpentaria Marine Park.
by Reef Life Survey
A pristine benthic coral community dominated by Solenosmilia variabilis (1021 metre depth). This coral forms large areas of reef habitat on the deep-sea seamounts in the Huon Marine Park which provides food, habitat and shelter to a diverse range of marine species.
by CSIRO
Still image of a Spangled emperor (Lethrinus nebulosus) taken during underwater visual census surveys in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia in 2008 as part of the Reef Life Survey program. This volunteer network of highly trained divers is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and Australian Marine Parks such as the Cod Grounds.
by Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
Still image of a Spotted wobbegong (Orectolobus maculatus) taken during underwater visual census surveys in the Cod Grounds Marine Park in New South Wales Commonwealth Waters of Australia in 2009 as part of the Reef Life Survey program. This volunteer network of highly trained divers is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the Coral Sea Marine Park, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and other Australian Marine Parks such as the Cod Grounds.
by Reef Life Survey
This stingeree was captured on camera during an AUV survey in the Freycinet Marine Park in June 2011. Stingerees are a family of rays within the order Myliobatiformes (commonly known as stingrays). They are relatively small compared to some of their cousins, typically measuring between 15-80 centimetres in length. They live on the bottom in sandy habitats on the shelf and upper regions of the continental slope, where they eat a variety of invertebrates, crustaceans and small fish that they trap beneath them and manoeuvre into their mouth by flexing their disc flaps. Half buried in sand, they are often very difficult to see, and divers, swimmers and snorkelers should be wary of the two venomous spines on the end of their tails.
by Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
These striped catfish (Plotosus lineatus) were photographed in the the Arafura Marine Park during a survey by Reef Life Survey. This is the only catfish that is found in coral reef ecosystems, however they are also found on the open coast and in tide pools. Juveniles of this species are typically found in balls of about 100 individuals like in this photograph, while adults are solitary or occur in much smaller groups.
by Reef Life Survey
A sled equipped with a sound source and hydrophone cable to receive sound reflected from sub-seabed stratigraphic units.
by Geoscience Australia
by Kellie Pendolie
Survey equipment used for marine habitat ground-truthing, including a Go Pro hero 9 camera, an LED light array and an electric fishing rod.
by Kellie Pendoley
Preparing for Reef Life Surveys with Gumurr Marthakal Rangers near Elcho Island.
by Reef Life Survey
A map of the Tasman Fracture Marine National Park Zone, surrounding the Mewstone, that was mapped during the survey in 2014.
by Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
A biodiverse temperate reef community on the Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania.
by Rick Stuart-Smith
This figure shows (a) seawater temperature and (b) seawater salinity from the surface to 1000 metres depth during the Bremer Bay canyon glider mission. Patterns of seawater temperature and salinity (and therefore density) can reveal a lot about the structure of the ocean currents in a region. This figure shows relatively warm, eastward flowing Leeuwin current water down to about 200 metres depth, which overlays colder water of the Flinders Current and Antarctic Intermediate Water.
by Paul Thomson