Researchers' Diaries

Corey Whisson

Mollusc Section, Aquatic Zoology, Western Australian Museum

Corey Whisson. Mollusc Section, Aquatic Zoology, WA Museum

While most people work within arms reach of the big smoke, the WA Museum fieldtrip to the Kimberley in October 2009 allowed me to work in a very remote environment. We landed at Broome airport and boarded our home, the rather large charter vessel Kimberley Quest, for the next 16 days. Early afternoon saw us steaming north along the coast. Rough seas and darkness encouraged us all to have an early night.

We awoke to empty seas for as far as we could see, except for the impressive Adele Island with it’s surrounding reefs and sand bars. I wondered what marine life we would find at this remote island so far from the mainland? We hoped to find out!

As malacologists, Clay Bryce and myself recorded and sampled the island’s molluscan fauna. The best way to do this was to think like a mollusc - where would I hide so as not be eaten and what would I eat? With this molluscan–like approach we set about methodically working along transects and sampling as many mollusc-friendly habitats as we could find within the designated collecting areas. From rubble to sand and caves to reef tops we searched for any and all molluscs - octopus, beautiful and not so beautiful nudibranchs, poisonous cone shells, lustrous cowries and boring (not dull!) bivalves. We turned rocks, fanned the rather silty sediment and searched all the nooks and crannies of the reef. However, compared with other areas along our coast Adele Island turned out to have a rather poor molluscan diversity.

At each collecting station I would mark off on my underwater clipboard the name of whatever mollusc I could easily identify, and place into my collecting bag any molluscs requiring further investigation. The same went for any specimen that looked unusual or could be a new record for the area. I also collected some turban shells so a British scientist could examine the DNA to help refine the species makeup of the group.

When my 60 minutes of collecting time is up I would head back to the boat to upload all the data onto the molluscan field database and try and put some names on these interesting critters! DNA samples were taken from selected specimens and photographed with registration numbers cross referenced to the database. All in a days work being a marine biologist with the WA Museum!

Melo amphora (northern baler shell) on Montgomery Reef

Photo: Clay Bryce

Copyright Western Australian Museum

The large, but unfortunately named dorid nudibranch, Asteronotus cespitosus on Montgomery Reef

Photo: Clay Bryce

Copyright Western Australian Museum

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