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Great Barrier Reef (2015 TV Series)
''Great Barrier Reef'' is a three-part BBC documentary series. Narrated by David Attenborough, its three episodes aired over December 2015 and into January 2016. The series was released on DVD and Blu-ray in January 2016. The MV Alucia, MV ''Alucia'' was used as a base for the series. ''The Cairns Post'' 4 November 2014 Synopses Episode 1: Builders This episode explores the creatures that inhabit the Great Barrier Reef off the northeastern coast of Australia on board the research vessel MV Alucia, MV ''Alucia''. Attenborough goes deep into the ocean on board ''Alucia ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia House
The High Commission of Australia in London is the diplomatic mission of Australia in the United Kingdom. It is located in Australia House, a Grade II listed building. It was Australia's first diplomatic mission and is the longest continuously occupied diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom. History A major landmark on the Strand, London, construction on the building by the Dove Brothers commenced in 1913, but shipping problems caused by the First World War delayed completion. It was officially opened by King George V in a ceremony on 3 August 1918 attended by the Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. The cost of the triangular shaped land was £379,756 (£ in ) when purchased by the Commonwealth of Australia in 1912 and building and other associated costs brought total expenditure to about £1 million. The building was designed by British architects, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie and his son, Alexander George Robertson Mackenzie following an architectural competiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heron Island (Queensland)
Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The island is situated on the leeward (western) side of Heron Reef, a fringing platform reef of significant biodiversity, supporting around 900 of the 1,500 fish species and 72% of the coral species found on the Great Barrier Reef.University of Queensland Centre for Marine StudiesIsland Research Station Retrieved 2006-JUL-14. During the summer months Heron Island is also home to over 200,000 birds including Noddy Terns and Mutton Birds. The island is about long and at its widest, giving an area of approximately . The highest point, near the western tip, is above sea level. A dune ridge along the southern shore rises some above sea level, lower dunes on the north-eastern side are only about above the sea. Heron Island and an extrapolated version of the research station are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiger Shark
The tiger shark (''Galeocerdo cuvier'') is a species of requiem shark and the last extant member of the family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over . Populations are found in many tropical and temperate waters, especially around central Pacific islands. Its name derives from the dark stripes down its body, which resemble a tiger's pattern, but fade as the shark matures. The tiger shark is a solitary, mostly nocturnal hunter. It is notable for having the widest food spectrum of all sharks, with a range of prey that includes crustaceans, fish, seals, birds, squid, turtles, sea snakes, dolphins, and even other smaller sharks. It also has a reputation as a "garbage eater", consuming a variety of inedible, man-made objects that linger in its stomach. Though apex predators, tiger sharks are sometimes taken as prey by groups of killer whales. It is considered a near threatened species because of finning and fishing by humans. The tiger s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mantis Shrimp
Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda (). Stomatopods branched off from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimp typically grow to around in length, while a few can reach up to . A mantis shrimp's carapace (the hard, thick shell that covers crustaceans and some other species) covers only the rear part of the head and the first four segments of the thorax. Varieties range in colour from shades of brown to vivid colours, with more than 450 species of mantis shrimp known. They are among the most important predators in many shallow, tropical and subtropical marine habitats. However, despite being common, they are poorly understood, as many species spend most of their lives sheltering in burrows and holes. Called "sea locusts" by ancient Assyrians, "prawn killers" in Australia, and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters"—because of the animal's ability to inflict painful woun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Anemone
Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Hexacorallia. As cnidarians, sea anemones are related to corals, jellyfish, tube-dwelling anemones, and ''hydra (genus), Hydra''. Unlike jellyfish, sea anemones do not have a Jellyfish#Life history and behavior, medusa stage in their life cycle. A typical sea anemone is a single polyp (zoology), polyp attached to a hard surface by its base, but some species live in soft sediment, and a few float near the surface of the water. The polyp has a columnar trunk topped by an oral disc with a ring of tentacles and a central mouth. The tentacles can be retracted inside the body cavity or expanded to catch passing prey. They are armed with cnidocytes (stinging cells). In many species, additional n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clownfish
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus ''Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus ''Amphiprion''. In the wild, they all form symbiotic mutualisms with sea anemones. Depending on the species, anemonefish are overall yellow, orange, or a reddish or blackish color, and many show white bars or patches. The largest can reach a length of , while the smallest barely achieve . Distribution and habitat Anemonefish are endemic to the warmer waters of the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea, and Pacific Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the Indo-Malaysian region. While most species have restricted distributions, others are widespread. Anemonefish typically live at the bottom of shallow seas in sheltered reefs or in shallow lagoons. No anemonefish are found in the Atlantic. Diet Anemonefish are omnivorous and can feed on undigested foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Polyp
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crown-of-thorns Starfish
The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its upper surface, resembling the biblical crown of thorns. It is one of the largest starfish in the world. ''A. planci'' has a very wide Indo-Pacific distribution. It is perhaps most common around Australia, but can occur at tropical and subtropical latitudes from the Red Sea and the East African coast across the Indian Ocean, and across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Central America. It occurs where coral reefs or hard coral communities occur in the region. Description The body form of the crown-of-thorns starfish is fundamentally the same as that of a typical starfish, with a central disk and radiating arms. Its special traits, however, include being disc-shaped, multiple-armed, flexible, prehensile, and heavily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclone Yasi
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi () was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that made landfall in northern Queensland, Australia in early 2011, causing major damage to the affected areas. Originating as a tropical low near Fiji on 26 January, the system intensified to tropical cyclone status during the evening of 30 January. Yasi deepened rapidly over the next 24 hours, and was classified as a Category 3 cyclone at about 5 PM AEST (07:00 UTC) on 31 January 2011. Late on 1 February, the cyclone strengthened to a Category 4 system; then, early on 2 February, the cyclone intensified into a Category 5 Severe Tropical Cyclone. The system had a well-defined eye and continued to track west-southwestward, maintaining a central pressure of 930 hPa (27 inHg) and a Dvorak intensity of T6.5 into the evening. At about 12:00 AM AEST (14:00 UTC) on 3 February, Yasi crossed the Australian coastline as a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone near Mission Beach, with estimated maximum 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SS Yongala
SS ''Yongala'' was a passenger and cargo ship that sank off Cape Bowling Green, Queensland, Australia on 23 March 1911. En route from Melbourne to Cairns she steamed into a cyclone and sank south of Townsville. All 122 aboard died, and traces of the ship were not found until days later, when cargo and wreckage began to wash ashore at Cape Bowling Green and at Cleveland Bay. It was believed that the hull of the ship had been ripped open by a submerged rock. The wreck, which has become a tourist attraction and dive site, was not found until 1958. Design and construction SS ''Yongala'' was a steel passenger and freight steamer built by Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne, England to special survey for the Adelaide Steamship Company, at a cost of £102,000. She was launched on 29 April 1903, and was registered in Adelaide. The vessel was named after the small town of Yongala in South Australia, a word from the Ngadjuri language which meant "good water". The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anticyclone). Cyclones are characterized by inward-spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The largest low-pressure systems are polar vortices and extratropical cyclones of the largest scale (the synoptic scale). Warm-core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also lie within the synoptic scale. Mesocyclones, tornadoes, and dust devils lie within smaller mesoscale. Upper level cyclones can exist without the presence of a surface low, and can pinch off from the base of the tropical upper tropospheric trough during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. Cyclones have also been seen on extraterrestrial planets, such as Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune. Cyclogenesis is the process of cyclone formation and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathy Townsend
Dr. Kathy Townsend is an academic marine biologist at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. Early life Kathy Townsend was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She enrolled in the University of Calgary in 1990, before moving to Australia in 1991 to pursue marine biology studies at the University of Queensland. She credits the Jacques Cousteau documentaries as the inspiration for her passion for marine biology. Career Townsend obtained her BSc and PhD, both in marine biology, from UQ. She is best known for her work on manta rays, the ecology of coral reefs, and the impact of ingested marine rubbish on sea turtles, with particular reference to Queensland's marine environments and organisms. She also works with the Earthwatch Institute. Townsend assisted in the production of, and appeared in, David Attenborough's series ''Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
