OCEAN EXPERTISE AT DARLING HARBOUR

UNSW takes its maritime expertise to Darling Harbour next month as part of the land-based activities of the Volvo Ocean Race Around the World.

Dr Matthew England, an oceanographer in the Centre for Environmental Modelling and Prediction in the School of Mathematics, said UNSW exhibits at the Race Stopover Village at Darling Harbour would highlight and explain the oceans' crucial role in global climate control.

From about 4 December until Boxing Day the eight large yachts competing in the race will be berthed at Darling Harbour. The yachts left Southampton in England in September and are due to finish in Kiel, Germany, next June. Each yacht carries temperature and ocean colour sensors on its keel. The data from these are fed back via satellite to the race's scientific headquarters at the University of Southampton.

With the assistance of science partners around the world, including UNSW, children are encouraged to use the data to investigate the health of the world's oceans as the yachts pass through them.

Dr England, who has contributed oceanography research data to the race website, said UNSW, along with the CSIRO in Hobart, had been chosen as the Australian science partners because of the two groups' expertise in oceanography, especially ocean modelling.

Mary Mulcahy, Manager of UNSW's Outreach Centre for Sciences, said: "The UNSW Ocean and Earth Exhibition at the Volvo Stopover Village contains displays and hands-on activities that will interest anyone concerned about the ocean environment. Several school groups have already booked to tour the UNSW exhibit.

"These displays include demonstrations of wave formation, biological activity in the oceans including plankton blooms and examples of biofouling, elements of navigation and marine communication, real-time links to satellite data and details on ocean and weather modelling," she said.

Other UNSW schools taking part in the exhibition are Physics, Chemistry, Food Science and Technology, and Biological Science, and the Faculty of the Built Environment.

CONTACT DETAILS: Mary Mulcahy, UNSW Outreach Centre for Sciences, tel. 9385 2942, mob. 0409 881 644; Amanda Hainsworth, UNSW Public Affairs and Development, tel. 9385 3872.

Date Issued: 29 November 2001