Research Voyages

Alan Williams

Dr Alan Williams' research into the marine ecosystems that support commercial fisheries has focussed on the deep ocean off SE Australia, but has included seagoing research off Western Australia, New Zealand and the North Sea.

Now based at the CSIRO marine laboratories, in Hobart, he is involved in a number of projects investigating the ecology of the deep ocean seabed. These focus upon methods for mapping and understanding the distributions of seabed fauna and the effects upon them from human activities, especially bottom fishing.

The 'Voyage of Discovery', being undertaken by RV Southern Surveyor, will provide a wealth of information, from a large expanse of Australia's seabed, which has been little studied before this time. Maps of seabed features do not exist, and the benthic invertebrate fauna has not been systematically sampled in deep waters (below 100 m depth).

The goals of his study are to provide information on the distribution of biodiversity, at the scale of the entire west coast, and in certain areas, at a range of finer scales. This will contribute to bioregionalisation, conservation and regional planning processes under way for Australia's south western and north western waters.

"My work aims to provide ecological information at a range of spatial scales so that researchers, managers of marine resources and users of the marine environment, especially commercial fishers, can visualize the structures and functions that characterize the marine environments they are working with," Dr Williams says.

"This is important in understanding the potential impacts resulting from human activities and in obtaining good outcomes from management intervention."

Dr Williams has been going to sea, on research voyages, fairly regularly for the last 20 years. "Working at sea is always a challenge, but particularly these days, because we run such complex multidisciplinary surveys, but it's always good to get away from the office and to get your hands dirty."

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Updated: 29/03/07