Three quarters of the Australian population lives within 50km of the coast and we take over 100,000 tonnes of seafood from the sea each year. The ocean is a great point of recreation, but much of our society’s waste also ends up there. This interdependent relationship is also difficult to manage as most of the impacts are unseen or seen only after a significant delay. Our staff engage in research to better understand marine biology, marine fauna needs and how the human and marine communities interact.

The Australian Marine Mammals Research Centre (AMMRC) conducts research focusing on the biology, importance and conservation of marine mammals. AMMRC was established in 1996 as collaboration between the Taronga Conservation Society Australia and the University of Sydney and now includes the University of New South Wales. Most programs at AMMRC are a combination of captive-based and field-based work. This combination has proved to be an efficient and effective method of assessing difficult questions for wild animals, as well as providing behavioural enrichment and new health care techniques for captive animals.