South Australian Research and Development Institute Executive Director Mike Steer has become the public face of South Australia’s lingering harmful algal bloom. As summer fast approaches, the government will rely on his advice to plan for how South Australians can safely spend time at the beach.
00:05Is the algal bloom going to ruin summer for beach-loving South Australians?
00:10It's not going to ruin summer, but it's going to, I guess,
00:14play a background role into how we will understand it and adapt to it.
00:20Will South Australians be able to swim at the beach?
00:22Absolutely.
00:23How can you be confident of that?
00:25The actual algae and the biotoxins that are produced by the algae,
00:31they're not significant health concerns.
00:34They can create an irritation for a proportion of the community.
00:41And you tend to only get that when the conditions get choppy, onshore winds.
00:48So the advice is if the water is clear and calm, then there's no problem at all.
00:54However, if it's discoloured or foamy, then there's just a heightened level of awareness to say,
01:01all right, well, if I'm susceptible to itchy eyes or coughing or whatever,
01:06then perhaps I should move somewhere else.
01:08And we see it with surfers, for example.
01:11They're pretty keen to get out and there's no stopping them.
01:17Have you had to stop surfing yourself?
01:19No, not at all.
01:20In fact, I'm really looking forward to spending a lot more quality time with the kids to the beach this summer.
01:26What about fishing?
01:27Should people be mindful or scale back on their fishing this summer?
01:31The fishing one's an interesting issue because the bloom has only really impacted a proportion of that biodiversity.
01:42It tends to impact those fish that are inshore, that are side attached, that are coastal.
01:49You know, we've seen impacts on, you know, flathead, leather jackets, sharks and rays.
01:55But there are other species that aren't impacted.
01:58You know, the Western Australian salmon, the fish that live further offshore.
02:03So in terms of saying, you know, stop fishing altogether, it doesn't really make sense because there are other species out there that are doing relatively well.
02:13These questions about swimming and seafood, they come up a lot.
02:16Is that an indication that public messaging around the algal bloom has been ineffective?
02:21We've not encountered this before, so I can understand that there'd be a level of concern.
02:30And most definitely, we're trying to engage in all the various media and messaging channels where we can.
02:38Because the message is complicated or has a level of complexity, then we just need to continually try and provide that clear, transparent statements.
02:50To what extent has Sidi been hampered by funding reductions or grant programs that haven't been renewed in the past?
02:56So our role and responsibility as a research provider is to undertake applied research that's going to benefit the sustainable and economic development of South Australia's primary industries.
03:09We get a level of funding, but we're creative where we can partner with universities, with industry to leverage more funding.
03:19And that's a model that's been happening for Sidi for decades.
03:25In any environment that relies on funding for science, it can be challenging.
03:32However, we consistently step up to that challenge.
03:35Had you seen a scaling back of that over recent years prior to the bloom?
03:39Oh, there has been. There has been. And that's not just a Sidi-specific issue. That's a national issue.
03:47In this sort of research space?
03:49In the applied research space. And even in the universities, I understand that they also struggle to maintain levels of funding to support their academic pursuits.
04:01Do you think the role of Sidi had been undervalued by the government in the lead up to the bloom?
04:06No. No, not at all. In fact, I think the role that Sidi plays in providing the R&D to support South Australia's primary industries is widely acclaimed.
04:21So, you know, we've got a great situation where the scientists or the science sits with the end users and has the regulators.
04:28And that means that everything we do has a tangible impact.
04:33And we've spoken a lot over recent months about the role of monitoring and how important that is to have a baseline.
04:39Is Sidi now properly resourced to be doing that monitoring in the long term?
04:45Yeah, in fact, we've got quite a history, particularly in aquatic sciences.
04:50Our bread and butter there is around stock assessments for commercial fisheries and aquaculture species.
04:57And we would have, you know, in some cases about 20 or so years of baseline information.
05:05There are calls from some sections of the scientific community to do more. Do you think you need to be doing more?
05:10I think the calls that are coming out are around the monitoring of the environment, the marine environment.
05:19What is particularly of interest is how we can forecast or at least understand those changes in biodiversity as a result of climate change or a changing environment.
05:31So there's clearly, you know, gaps.
05:35But from Sidi's perspective, we have undertaken marine environment work as well.
05:41We've heard state and federal governments repeatedly blame scientific advice for their slow reaction to this algal bloom.
05:48Is that fair?
05:50To some extent, it's fair because, from a scientific perspective, is because we, you know, we've experienced a half-way algal bloom in the past in 2014 in Coffin Bay.
06:06And that only lasted a few months.
06:08Should you have been more open in those early days to the possibility that this could extend months or years?
06:14Well, we anticipated when the bloom started in a regional part of South Australia that the oceanography and the weather would have dissipated it relatively quickly.
06:26And we kept our eye on it.
06:28I think it caught us all off guard a little bit.
06:32It's probably somewhat unfair to say, you know, we responded late.
06:37This is new for us.
06:39And in terms of our response, there are people working frantically behind the scenes to understand not only the role of the algal bloom, but the ramifications of it to South Australia's communities.
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