The effect of marine seismic surveys on the movement, abundance and community structure of demersal fish assemblages on the North West Shelf

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 480
Author(s):  
Mark G. Meekan ◽  
Conrad W. Speed ◽  
Robert D. McCauley ◽  
Jayson M. Semmens ◽  
Stephen J. Newman ◽  
...  

In 2018, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and its partners, conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of exposure to a 3D seismic survey on demersal fishes. The experiment involved the use of a commercial seismic vessel equipped with a 2600 cubic inch air-gun array, sailing a racetrack pattern with eight operational (high exposure zone) and eight inactive (vessel control zone) sail lines, with a 500 m sequential line separation and ≈18 m shot point spacing. The high exposure and vessel control lines were separated by 35 km. Demersal fishes were observed in five sampling surveys over a 6-month period (three surveys before and two after exposure), using acoustic telemetry and stereo baited remote underwater videos systems (BRUVS). The telemetry component included the capture, tagging with acoustic transmitters and release of 387 red emperor (Lutjanus sebae) within two telemetry receiver arrays. These arrays, one in each zone, comprised 37 and 39 acoustic receivers over ≈32 km2, to record movements of tagged fish. The receivers provided near-continuous data on tag locations, and, hence, movement of fish in the area, until removal in December 2018. During each sampling survey, BRUVS were deployed at various distances from the area of the seismic survey. Study results are currently being finalised for presentation.

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 692 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.D. McCauley ◽  
M-N. Jenner ◽  
C. Jenner ◽  
K.A. McCabe ◽  
J. Murdoch

During October to November 1996 WMC Petroleum conducted the Robert 3D seismic survey to the northeast of North West Cape, off Exmouth Western Australia. The survey used one of two 2678 cui (44 L) air-gun arrays of source level 258 dB re 1µPa2−m p−p below the array (77 bar-m), operating every eight s for 33.4 days of continual operation. Tracklines ran east-west across the path of southerly migrating humpback whales. Before the seismic survey began aerial surveys determined that humpbacks moving through the seismic area were distributed uniformly seaward of the 20 m depth contour. Based on observations made from the operating Geco Resolution there did not appear to be any gross changes in the migratory path of humpback whales through the seismic area. Whales approaching the operating Geco Resolution began avoidance manoeuvres at 5−8 km and mostly kept a standoff range of 3−4 km. Some whales approached the vessel closer. Experiments were carried out in Exmouth Gulf where the movements and behaviour of humpback pods were monitored before, during and after an approach with a 20 cui air-gun (0.33 L) of horizontal source level 227 dB re 1µPa2−m p−p. The levels at which avoidance manoeuvres began during these trials was approximately 159 dB re 1µPa2 p−p, which is roughly equivalent to the received level of the 2678 cui array at 5 km, at 162 dB re 1µPa2 p−p. General avoidance of the 20 cui air-gun was observed at 1 km, or a level of 168 dB re 1µPa2 p−p, which was roughly equivalent to the level of the 2678 cui array at 3 km at 170 dB re 1µPa2 p−p, which was the general minimum humpback standoff range observed from this array. Whales were observed to move closer to the operating 20 cui and 2678 cui air-gun/array. It is speculated that these whales were mostly males intent on investigating or passing quickly by the appropriate air-gun/array.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (30) ◽  
pp. e2100869118
Author(s):  
Mark G. Meekan ◽  
Conrad W. Speed ◽  
Robert D. McCauley ◽  
Rebecca Fisher ◽  
Matthew J. Birt ◽  
...  

Seismic surveys are used to locate oil and gas reserves below the seabed and can be a major source of noise in marine environments. Their effects on commercial fisheries are a subject of debate, with experimental studies often producing results that are difficult to interpret. We overcame these issues in a large-scale experiment that quantified the impacts of exposure to a commercial seismic source on an assemblage of tropical demersal fishes targeted by commercial fisheries on the North West Shelf of Western Australia. We show that there were no short-term (days) or long-term (months) effects of exposure on the composition, abundance, size structure, behavior, or movement of this fauna. These multiple lines of evidence suggest that seismic surveys have little impact on demersal fishes in this environment.


Pharmacy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Matthew Deneff ◽  
Lisa M. Holle ◽  
Jill M. Fitzgerald ◽  
Kathryn Wheeler

Pharmacy law instruction is often taught as a didactic course; however practical application of pharmacy law is a main component of pharmacy practice. Technology-based simulations are becoming more frequently used to enhance didactic pharmacy education. The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of and student perceptions on the usefulness of MyDispense community pharmacy simulation for additional law instruction that if successful might prompt curricular revamping. This Institutional Review Board–approved, two-year, qualitative, prospective, survey study was conducted in a case study class where students completed MyDispense exercises focused on common legal issues that arise in practice, both individually before and within groups during class. Participating students completed a qualitative survey directed at use of MyDispense for pharmacy law review, which included a series of close-ended questions graded on a Likert scale and open-ended questions thematically grouped. Thirty-eight (41%) and twenty-eight (31%) students completed surveys in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The majority of respondents felt exercises improved their understanding of pharmacy laws, focused on challenging areas, and were more interesting than additional lectures. However, certain topics were reported as irrelevant based on practice experiences or not ideal for simulation, and students desired exercises on state laws versus pharmacy policies. Students reported the MyDispense simulation exercises helped them to recall pharmacy laws and focus on topics that were challenging. These study results prompted curricular revamping to incorporate MyDispense throughout the curriculum for practice in recognizing and solving legal scenarios, along with didactic course changes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272110133
Author(s):  
Neel Shimpi ◽  
Ingrid Glurich ◽  
Catherine Maybury ◽  
Min Qi Wang ◽  
Kazumasa Hashimoto ◽  
...  

Objective Health education interventions during pregnancy can influence maternal oral health (OH), maternal OH-behaviors and children’s OH. Interventions that can be delivered at anytime and anywhere, for example mobile-health (mHealth) provides an opportunity to address challenges of health education and support activation of women in underserved and rural communities to modify their health behavior. This pilot study was undertaken as a part of a mHealth initiative to determine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to pregnancy and ECC prevention among women attending obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN) practices at a large rurally-based clinic. Methods A cross-sectional survey study was voluntarily engaged by women (n = 191) aged 18 to 59 years attending OB/GYN visits, over a 3-week period from 12/2019 to 1/2020. Survey results were analyzed applying descriptive statistics, X2 and Fisher’s Exact tests. The significance level was set at P < .0001 for all analyses. Results Approximately half of respondents were between 18 and 29 years (53%), had a college degree (55%), and 100% reported cell phone use. Whereas 53% and 31%, respectively, indicated that they were “somewhat” or “very” sure of how to prevent ECC in their children, only 9% recognized evidence of early decay and 30% did not know the purpose of fluoride. Overall, only 27% of participants correctly answered the knowledge-based questions. Further, only 57% reported their provider explained things in a way that was easy to understand. Only 24% reported seeing a dentist during their current pregnancy. Conclusions Study results suggested potential gaps in knowledge and behaviors related to ECC prevention and provided baseline data to inform future interventions to improve ECC prevention practices. Notably, majority of participants used their cell phones for making medical/dental appointments and reported using their phones to look up health-related information. This demographic represents a potentially receptive target for mHealth approaches to improve understanding of oral health maintenance during pregnancy and ECC prevention.


Fishes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Qingsong He ◽  
Shuyang Ma ◽  
Qinwang Xing ◽  
Wenchao Zhang ◽  
Haiqing Yu ◽  
...  

Although nonstationarity in marine ecosystems has attracted great attention, the nonstationary responses of demersal fishes to environmental variations induced by the changing climate are still not well understood. Here, we collected 21 time series of demersal fishes from 1956 to 2015 to investigate the climate-induced nonstationary responses in temperate waters of the northwestern North Pacific (NWP). We showed that these demersal fishes experienced state shifts in approximately 1986/87, accompanied by abrupt warming over this region. Moreover, the relationships between demersal fishes and sea surface temperature (SST) were found to change between the two identified eras (i.e., a weak relationship before 1986 and a strong negative relationship after 1986), which may be primarily caused by the alternating dominance of the East Asian winter monsoon and mega-ENSO on SST in temperate waters of the NWP. The identified climate-induced nonstationary responses of demersal fishes to SST variability in this study may provide implications for understanding climate-induced biological dynamics, predicting demersal fish fluctuations, coping with potential ecological risks, and the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources in the future climate. Note that the impact of fishing on the demersal fishes in temperate waters of the NWP was not assessed in this study due to the lack of fishing effort data and therefore the conclusions of our research should be approached with caution.


Author(s):  
Régis Santos ◽  
Wendell Medeiros‐Leal ◽  
Ana Novoa‐Pabon ◽  
Hélder Silva ◽  
Mário Pinho

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asphat Muposhi ◽  
Brighton Nyagadza ◽  
Chengedzai Mafini

PurposeFashion designers in South Africa remain ambivalent in embracing sustainable fashion. This study examines the role of neutralisation techniques on attitude towards sustainable fashion. The study was conducted in South Africa, an emerging market known for water scarcity and pollution emanating from the textile industry.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was used to collect cross-sectional data from a sample of 590 fashion designers using a web-based online survey. Study constructs were drawn from the neutralisation theory and theory of planned behaviour.FindingsStandard multiple regression analysis results identified denial of injury, appeal to higher loyalties and external locus of control as the major rationalisation techniques influencing South African designers' negative attitudes towards sustainable fashion.Research limitations/implicationsResearch was conducted in South Africa where the concept of sustainable fashion is still at developmental stages. The generalisation of the study findings may be enhanced by extending the study to other markets with a fully developed market for sustainable fashion.Practical implicationsThe study results underscore the necessity of reducing social, structural and institutional barriers associated with the adoption of sustainable fashion. This study provides input towards efforts to develop attitude change strategies to stimulate designers to embrace sustainable fashion.Originality/valueThe research study contributes to theory, practice and future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyuan Li ◽  
Mohammed Abubakari Sadick ◽  
Abdul-Aziz Ibn Musah ◽  
Salisu Mustapha

This paper presents a survey study of how social innovation moderates social and economic value from the perspective of shared value creation. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions: Does economic value lead to social value creation in shared value creation? Does social innovation moderate social and economic value in the creation of shared value? The questions are addressed through an empirical investigation of 250 social enterprise organizations that apply social objectives and a market-based approach to attain social and economic goals in Ghana. The study used SmartPLS software version 3.0 to evaluate the data collected. The results indicated that economic value influences the creation of social value in shared value creation. Study results also revealed that social innovation is a driver of shared value creation via social value in the educational sector of Ghana. However, social innovation could not play a moderating role in economic value to shared value creation.


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