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This site hosted by the Sciences Department, Museum Victoria. |
Background to port surveys and the Ports Surveys Integration ProjectIntroduced marine organisms which threaten to become pests are a serious threat to Australian marine environments. For this reason, surveys of Australian international ports for introduced marine species were begun in 1996 using a standard set of protocols established by the Centre for Research of Invasive Marine Species (CRIMP) based in Hobart within the CSIRO Division of Marine Research.Since 1996, over 70 ports have been surveyed, 4 are currently being surveyed and 26 remain to be done. Australia's international ports are widely distributed and for many this was the first extensive survey ever conducted of their biodiversity, as both introduced and native species were sampled. Many new species and new records of known species for Australian waters have thus been generated. In 1996, when port surveys commenced, there were no national online biodiversity databases. During 2003 and 2004, Australian museums collaborated to develop OZCAM (Online Zoological Collections of Australian Museums). OZCAM, a distributed network that links faunal database collections across collections held in museums and the CSIRO. This system is dynamic; queries to OZCAM are automatically updated as specimen identifications improve and taxonomic research progresses (previously used names can also be tracked). At present, OZCAM covers over a million specimens in a range of animal groups (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and many insects) and other groups are being added regularly. OZCAM is now the public interface to museum databases. Initially port surveys were undertaken by CRIMP but subsequently other government agencies, universities, consulting companies and a few museums undertook surveys and still retain data and specimens. These valuable samples are not necessarily properly cared for or databased and access is extremely difficult for those outside these agencies. Access is vital for ongoing taxonomic verification and research. The OZCAM infrastructure is now available to make the data available both publicly, and in formats tailored to other uses, such as modelling and risk assessment. OZCAM has the capacity to accommodate non-specimen based data but for the purposes of this project only specimen-based data will be uploaded into OZCAM and made public. Port survey specimens and data have a natural home in Australian museums; only there will their long-term care be guaranteed for posterity, only there are they accessible for ongoing taxonomic work, and only there can they be made a part of a single online biodiversity database for the national faunal collections. |