Great Southern Reef

And what does it look like down there? What's your local, where do you go when you're going out in the field? What's it like?

So we're part of the Great Southern Reef along here, which connects along the southern coastline of Australia and And here I think South Australia is quite interesting is we've got these two gulfs, these massive bodies of water where Adelaide is based in one.

They're quite unique in that they're an inverse estuary.

So these are large estuaries that get saltier towards the mouth of the estuary and there's no rivers going into them or major rivers.

So I've been trying to work out if these guys are the same species as the giant cuttlefish that we see further up the east coast where I am.

And what has to happen for a species to be listed as threatened? Zoe's going to share a bit more about this in a sec, but just for some context before she does, threatened fauna and flora in Australia can be listed under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, or the EPBC.

And the Great Southern Reef Foundation, jump back to early episodes to hear about that, very recently wrote to Murray Watt, our Federal Minister for the Environment, seeking urgent EPBC assessment for this particular population of giant cuttlefish.

At the time that I'm recording this, the Minister has asked the Threatened Species Scientific Committee to urgently consider its listing as threatened.

And so, yeah, we're going to be advertising it and trying to get them to jump on board.

And then, fingers crossed, if that goes well, our next step is to create a version that encompasses the whole of the Great Southern Reef, so the big reef that runs from Perth to Sydney all around.

So we're going to invest in some more artwork from Amy, get a whole bunch more and launch like pretty much a Southern Australia version of Big Fish.

And yeah, take it national.