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Scientists return to marine "treasure trove" on Sydney Harbour
By Dan Gaffney
September 12, 2008

How many species of marine creatures remain of the dozens first discovered on a tiny island in Sydney Harbour 130 years ago?

That's the question a team of biologists hope to answer this weekend when they scour Clark Island where William Haswell, one of Australia's most significant early biologists, found and classified a treasure trove of new marine species previously unknown to science.

Haswell identified over 100 new species of marine crustaceans and worms from Sydney Harbour in the 1870s and 1880s. Many other species bear his name in honour of his prodigious efforts.

On the weekend of 13-14 September, a team of scientists and students from UNSW and the Australian Museum will comb the island and its rocky shoreline in search of what remains of the original biodiversity found by Haswell.

High on the "most wanted" list are two species of isopods, small shrimp-like animals that were discovered by Haswell but have not been seen since in Sydney Harbour since those early collections.

Clark Island lies 400 metres from Darling Point in Sydney Harbour. Less that one hectare in size, it is named after Lieutenant Ralph Clark of the First Fleet, who maintained a vegetable garden on the island. Today the island is uninhabited, and forms part of the Sydney Harbour National Park.

"Our goal is to count the number of unique invertebrate species on Clark Island by the end of weekend," says UNSW biologist Dr Alistair Poore.

"Haswell was a methodical and meticulous cataloguer of the island's tiny marine life and it will be fascinating to see if Clark Island still harbours the species that he collected there. We will compare our species lists to Haswell's original catalogues to see if the biodiversity has changed in the past 130 years or so."

Dr Jim Lowry from the Australian Museum estimates that "half of the marine invertebrates in Sydney Harbour are yet to be discovered by science. There is much yet to discover right on Sydney's doorstep," he says.

Up to 50 UNSW biology students will provide the bulk of the labour for the survey. They will been divided into several "habitat teams", with each assigned to study particular sections of the island, such as the rocky shore, kelp forests, pier pilings, and sandy sediments.