Students set sail for warm change

THE East Australian Current has been gradually increasing water temperatures along the state’s East Coast for many years and a group of Tasmanian students are about to find out why.

Twenty-five Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies students will receive a taste of scientific research when they sail from Hobart to Brisbane on board Australian research vessel Investigator this week.

The students departed yesterday to study the oceanography of the current as the Investigator makes an eightday transit to Brisbane to prepare for its next research voyage.

The voyage’s chief scientist, IMAS Associate Professor Zanna Chase, said the students would sample warm water eddies, which are rotating pockets of surface water that can reach up to 100km wide. One eddy is off Flinders Island, with more closer to Brisbane.

“The EAC is a major influence on the climate of eastern Australia and an important factor in the warming waters that we are experiencing in the Tasman Sea as a result of climate change,” Prof Chase said.

“Historically it’s been strengthening, so we’re seeing warmer waters here as it comes further south.

“We’re looking at it from a climate change perspective and what it’s going to mean for the future of Tasmania’s water [temperatures] and species,” IMAS masters student Chloe Power said.