00:03Fishing out gummy sharks and fiddler rays, but this isn't your usual fishing trip.
00:08Oh my gosh, she's massive!
00:11With climate change and increasing impacts of human activity, we need a baseline measure of what's going on.
00:17For the first time, marine scientists are mapping out a holistic view of Port Phillip Bay,
00:22tagging and taking samples of several shark and ray species.
00:27It might be that this species isn't doing great, but overall there are other species to fill the role,
00:33so the ecosystem's fine, and in other cases it might be that one species loss is actually really affecting everything
00:40else.
00:41Climate change also means that species previously unseen this far south could seek out the cooler waters of Victoria.
00:49We have bull sharks in northern Victoria now, and if they keep moving southward, eventually they'll be in Port Phillip
00:55Bay.
00:56Scientists have spent more than two years collecting data on Port Phillip Bay's sharks and rays,
01:02with the long-term impacts of human activity and climate change to be determined over the next few decades.
01:10They're also exploring the impacts of shipping and aquaculture to help inform conservation management.
01:16So you could designate specific areas that are marine protected areas, where if we find that those activities are really
01:24impacting their movements,
01:25then you can not allow it in areas that might be really important for the sharks and rays.
01:30Louisa Graff is researching fiddler rays, locating what she believes to be an important nursery in Swan Bay near Queenscliff.
01:39It's already a marine protected area, but there are concerns recent cuts to fisheries compliance officers are encouraging illegal fishing.
01:47It is hard to manage fishing within MPAs because of the lack of resources that we do have at the
01:52moment, but that is absolutely an important thing that we need to be doing.
01:56The state government says it's launched the major fisheries crime unit to target organised illegal fishing.
02:02We are considered a lifeboat for a lot of species, so keeping these populations healthy here is beneficial to us
02:10and the rest of the world.
02:12Keeping across shifting marine life movements in an environment under increasing pressure.
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