MARINE SPECIES OF CONSERVATION INTEREST ON NORTHERN KANGAROO ISLAND - RESULTS OF 2013 FIELD WORK Part 1: Marine Invertebrates J. Baker1, H. Crawford2, L. Baade3, D. Muirhead4, J. Manna5, and R. Velzeboer6 1 Janine L. Baker, Marine Ecologist, President of South Australian Conservation Research Divers (SACReD) Email: [email protected] 2 Helen Crawford, Visual Artist, Marine Photographer, member of SACReD and MLSSA 3 Luke Baade, Marine Photographer, member of SACReD 4 Dr David Muirhead, Marine Photographer, member of MLSSA 5 James Manna, Marine Photographer, member of Flinders University Underwater Club; associate member of SACReD 6 Renate Velzeboer, Ecologist, member of SACReD (c) H. Crawford Report for: Kangaroo Island NRM Board Coast and Marine Program, and S.A. Department for Environment, Water & Natural Resources February 2015 update of September 2013 report Dedication This report is dedicated to marine scientist Mr Danny Brock, formerly of the Coast and Marine Program, Kangaroo Island Natural Resources Management Board. Danny’s involvement in numerous coastal and marine projects during the past decade has assisted marine research, monitoring and conservation initiatives on Kangaroo Island. Acknowledgments Thanks to the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program, and to staff of DEWNR’s Natural Resources - Kangaroo Island (Kangaroo Island NRM Board) and Natural Resources - Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges (AMLR NRM Board), for providing resources which enabled marine surveys to be undertaken on northern Kangaroo Island in 2013. Particular thanks go to Mr Danny Brock and Ms Alicia McArdle for their role in project coordination and management. Thanks also to Mr Kym Lashmar for correspondence about RLS data. Thank you to Mr Tony Geyer of Kangaroo Island, for his expertise in boat handling and caring for divers in the water. SACReD divers and associates are most grateful for Tony’s time and valuable assistance during the 2013 field work. Thanks to the following persons (in alphabetical order), collectively from DEWNR, KI NRM and Kangaroo Island Friends of the Sea who collected Reef Life Survey (RLS) data during the March and April 2013 field trips: Danny Brock, James Brook, Dr Simon Bryars, Grant Flanagan, Heiri Klein, Kym Lashmar, Alicia McArdle, Sarah-Lena Reinhold. Renate Velzeboer from SACReD also collected RLS data during the March field trip. Thanks to the marine taxonomists and other marine researchers who helped to identify photographs taken by SACReD divers during the April 2013 Kangaroo Island field trip. These include (in alphabetical order): Mr Bob Burn, Honorary Associate, Museum Victoria Dr Andrea Crowther, South Australian Museum Mr John Chuk, Platyhelminthes and Opisthobranch researcher, associated with Museum of Victoria Ms Audrey Falconer, Marine Research Group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria Mr Thierry Laperousaz, South Australian Museum Ms Michela Mitchell, Taxonomic Services Australia Dr Tim O’Hara, Museum Victoria Dr P. Mark O’Loughlin, Associate of Museum Victoria; and Ms Shirley Sorokin, SARDI Aquatic Sciences, South Australia Dr David Staples, Museum Victoria Dr Robin Wilson, Museum Victoria. The expertise of the aforementioned people has greatly assisted the project, and their time is also much appreciated. Regarding identification of species photographs from Kangaroo Island, particular thanks go to John Chuk, Michela Mitchell and Robin Wilson for their regular correspondence, and for sharing their valuable knowledge of various marine invertebrate phyla in south-eastern Australia. We are grateful to Dr Andrea Crowther from the South Australian Museum (SAM) for checking the opisthobranch and nudibranch collection at SAM, which enabled much of the content in Appendix 2 to be included. 2 MARINE SPECIES OF CONSERVATION INTEREST ON NORTHERN KANGAROO ISLAND - RESULTS OF 2013 FIELD WORK Part 1 - Marine Invertebrates SUMMARY In 2013, with assistance from the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program, and DEWNR’s Natural Resources - Kangaroo Island (Kangaroo Island NRM Board), a joint field work was undertaken by Kangaroo Island Friend’s of the Sea, an NRM-supported community group which uses a standard marine monitoring method developed by Reef Life Survey program, to monitor the species composition of reef sites on Kangaroo Island; and South Australian Conservation Research Divers (SACReD), a community-based marine group which aims to learn more about the distribution and habitats of rarely recorded, endemic, and other marine species of conservation interest at sites along the northern coast of Kangaroo Island. Part of the field work aimed to contribute towards an understanding of the biodiversity of marine invertebrates in the KI area, so that populations of rare, uncommonly recorded and endemic species may be better conserved, and protected from threatening processes. The KI field work formed part of a larger, Statewide marine species research project in which SACReD has been involved since 2011. SACReD’s current searches of invertebrate fauna include taxa in Anthozoa (anemones and corals); Prosobranchia (sea snails); Opisthobranchs / Heterobranchia (sea slugs / nudibranchs); Platyhelminthes (flatworms); Nemertea (ribbon worms); Polychaeta (sea worms); Ascidiacea (ascidians / sea squirts), and several other groups. Between March 2013 and April 2013, 5 SACReD divers collectively spent more than 36 hours diving, at 8 subtidal reef sites and 1 jetty within the KI NRM region, and took more than 2,000 photographs of marine invertebrates. To date, 10 marine taxonomists and other specialists from around Australia have assisted SACReD’s rare and endemic marine invertebrates’ project in KI NRM region, by offering advice, and identifying macro-photographs of invertebrates taken by SACReD divers. A list of unidentified species has been prepared for which samples will later be collected and lodged at the South Australian Museum, for transfer to various taxonomists in south-eastern Australia. Results of the project to date have included records of taxa apparently not previously recorded anywhere else (i.e. “new”, undescribed species); undescribed species of tropical affinity (some of which may not have previously been recorded in SA), and range extensions for rarely recorded species (previously known from only one or two records). Our group’s field investigations, complemented by discussions with marine taxonomists, have helped to improve the state of knowledge about the distribution and habitat of a number of rarely recorded and endemic marine invertebrates in South Australia, as well as rarely recorded tropical species, and several undescribed and previously unrecorded taxa. To date, targetted searches for marine invertebrate have been concentrated in few areas on Kangaroo Island, mainly the coves and bays of the northern and north-eastern coast. For many parts of the KI NRM region, little is known of the rarely recorded and endemic marine invertebrate fauna, other than the area between Western River Cove and Snug Cove, and parts of the north-eastern bays, where intensive collecting and photography occurred over several years during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Additionally, collecting trips to gather opisthobranchs for taxonomic description at museums occurred during the 1970s, and “specimen shells” (various species of valuable gastropod mollusc) have also been collected from sites off north-eastern Kangaroo Island, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s. A high but currently unquantifiable number of apparently rare species are likely to be more widespread but have not yet been sampled due to their small size and/or cryptic habits. Without substantial survey and collecting effort, it is not possible to determine true “rarity” over any spatial scale, or to produce reliable systematic maps of the range of various invertebrate species. It is planned that the next stage of this project will involve searches, macro- photography and specimen collection (for taxonomic identification) at areas within the KI NRM region which have not previously been searched, including more remote locations, and areas within and outside of the sanctuary zones of marine protected areas. 3 . TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................5 2. Conservation of Marine Invertebrates in South Australia. ..............................................................5 3. Characteristics that Determine Vulnerability of Marine Species......................................................6 4. Methods.........................................................................................................................................8 5. Results - Species Accounts............................................................................................................11 Anthozoa (Anemones and Corals)........................................................................................................11 Bryozoans (Lace “Corals” and Moss Animals).......................................................................................14 Platyhelminthes (Flatworms)................................................................................................................15 Polychaeta (Sea Worms).......................................................................................................................16 Tunicata (Sea Squirts / Ascidians).........................................................................................................19