Facilities

Australian Marine Ecology facilities include:

two scientific dive teams and diving equipment;
small vessels and water quality sampling equipment;
offices with library and computing facilities;
suite of in-house numerical ecology software;
standard laboratory facilities, including dissection equipment, ovens, balances, etc.;
workshop facilities;
intertidal sampling equipment;
underwater sampling equipment, e.g. transect reels, quadrats, underwater cameras, video, sediment corers and suction sampler;
differential global positioning system (dGPS);
drop-frame, sled and towfish mounted underwater video systems;
remote operated vehicle (ROV) with USBL sonar tracking system, linked to GPS and in-house habitat mapping software.

Australian Marine Ecology is capable of marine studies throughout Australia. We have a fully equipped office and laboratory in Melbourne. We have an extensive range of equipment for intertidal research, on-water and subtidal research. All staff have appropriate qualifications for fieldwork, including diver accreditation, coxswains certificates, radio operations licences, first-aid training and oxygen provider accreditation. We have all necessary diving and boating safety equipment, including first aid kits, radios, flares, EPRIB and oxygen therapy unit.

Australian Marine Ecology has a variety of vessels for inshore coastal studies. We also charter large seagoing vessels for extended, live-aboard expeditions. We have a close working relationship with many charter operators throughout Australia who are familiar with scientific operations at sea.

Much of Australian Marine Ecology's inshore work involves scientific diving applications. We are fully equipped with self contained underwater breathing apparatus and tools for taking quantitative underwater observations and measurements, including survey lines, quadrats, slates, camera, video and suction samplers.

Research and investigations in deep water habitats, not accessible by diving, are facilitated by Australian Marine Ecology's ROV and other underwater video systems. Our ROV and underwater video systems are also applied for habitat surveys of shallow waters.

Many of our ecological studies are integrated with hydrographic, geotechnical or physico-chemical studies. In such cases, we either work closely with multidisciplinary sampling teams or we take on the sampling and reporting tasks for the other disciplines. Our experience includes facilitating scientific echo-sounding, sidescan sonar, multibeam sonar, laser airborne depth sounder, current metering and drogue studies, water column and sediment chemical sampling and various other instrument deployments.

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ABN 87 090 556 595