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Reposted by Maarten De Brauwer

Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 14h

Attempted eradication of smallmouth bass promotes rapid evolution. Here's the study that is the focus of the Scientific American article: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 7h

It's mid-October & ARC haven't updated us since mid-July on the Brand New Grants System.

When will we be told?

What schemes will even run?

ARC "paused" (cancelled?) the only Indigenous scheme, plus Laureates & all Industry Fellowships, and so far there's no replacements.

ARC? Anyone?

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Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · 4h

So true! Same story here!

Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · 3d

PhD opportunity: improving #eDNA methods to better understand estuarine health.

A collaborative university-government project to provide solutions and improve the management of estuaries in Australia.

sednasociety.com/2025/10/10/p...

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marinefreshwater.bsky.social @marinefreshwater.bsky.social · 9d

Calling all marine & freshwater sciences students 📣

@marinefreshwater.bsky.social has a new #StudentPrize!

The first winner will be announced in 2027 to allow time for submissions and nominations.

More details:
www.publish.csiro.au/mf/forauthor...

#MarineFreshwaterRes

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Awards and Prizes

www.publish.csiro.au

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marinefreshwater.bsky.social @marinefreshwater.bsky.social · Aug 28

Marine & Freshwater Research is officially on bluesky! We’ll share peer-reviewed articles about ecology and management of aquatic environments, marine and freshwater.
Make sure to follow to stay up to date with latest articles!
#MarineFreshwaterRes
www.publish.csiro.au/mf

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Iconic Fishes @iconicfishes.bsky.social · 11d

🌊 Whether you paint 🎨, dance 💃, doodle ✏️, weave 🧵, write ✍️, design jewellery 💎, compose music 🎶, build Legos 🧩, cut potato prints 🥔or create in ways we haven’t even imagined, this is your invitation to join a global arts movement Inspired by #IconicFishes
👉 www.iconicfishes.art/updates/intr...

Introducing “Inspired by #IconicFishes”, a global arts movement for our ocean’s quirkiest fishes — Inspired by Iconic Fishes

A global arts movement inviting people of all ages, from every part of the world, to celebrate the wondrous lives of truly iconic fishes: seahorses, pipefish, seadragons, and their cousins: ghost pipe...

www.iconicfishes.art

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Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 15d

Report on Australian Higher Education finds:

🔹️ Council members have no lived experience of universities

🔹️ Council members have COIs with consultancy firms

🔹️ Council meetings are closed affairs that lack transparency

🔹️ Leaders' exorbitant salaries could not be justified

One submission said leaders’ salaries could not be “justified by the quality of executive decision-making, nor by the scope of executive duties. The core business of a university – teaching and research – is co-ordinated virtually entirely by ordinary non-executive staff”.

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Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · 13d

Nice! Keen to have a closer look!

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IUCN SSC Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group @iucnseahorse.bsky.social · 16d

Over the past 7 months, South Australia has experienced the largest recorded mass mortality of leafy seadragons and weedy seadragons. Thousands of these iconic fishes have died during an extended harmful algal bloom. Read more: www.iucn-seahorse.org/news/2025/9/...

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Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · 18d

Winter estuary #eDNA surveys DONE!

The NSW south coast is a special place, even had a fur seal joining us in the Bega River on the last day.

Finished the trip with a new tradition: a dip in the stunning (but cold) ocean pool in Bermaguie

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Fiona Chong @fchong.bsky.social · 19d

Beautiful south coast of NSW

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Sea Change Australia @seachangeaustralia.bsky.social · 24d

Cleaner Crabs 🦀
Climate-driven floods in northern NSW are washing chemicals into estuaries, threatening seafood safety. Researchers and crab fishers show that simple post-harvest steps - like cooking or depuration - can keep crabs safe. Adaptation works, from catchment to coast: tinyurl.com/2tf7e6rk

Cleaner Crabs: Adapting Seafood Safety for a Changing Climate

In the muddy estuaries of northern New South Wales, two of Australia’s most iconic crustaceans – the Giant Mud Crab (Scylla serrata) and the Blue Swimmer Crab (Portunus armatus) – are caught in the cr...

tinyurl.com

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Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · 24d

Fieldwork time! Currently conducting #eDNA surveys in southern NSW to study estuarine biodiversity.

It's been great fun working with the Jerrinja (Shoalhaven River) and Walbunja (Clyde River) rangers this week!

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European Environmental Bureau🍃 @eeb.org · 26d

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🔬💧 Over 600 scientists from across Europe have signed a joint statement calling on the EU to urgently update its water pollution rules.

📢 Freshwater ecosystems are collapsing - and outdated policies aren't keeping up.

Full statement ➡️ www.fba.org.uk/fba-voice/sc...

#HandsOffNature

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Francis Markham @francismarkham.bsky.social · Sep 7

Australian universities are in a governance crisis. VC pay blowouts, scandals, mission drift — these aren’t random, they’re structural.

This new working paper with @marijataflaga.bsky.social & Keith Dowding digs into why the system is broken, and how to fix it.

doi.org/10.25911/MWW...

A thread:

Neither corporate nor government: Why university governance needs to be different, and better
Marija Taflaga, Francis Markham and Keith Dowding.

Preprint, 29 August 2025. https://doi.org/10.25911/MWW4-9781

Abstract
Australian universities face a governance crisis rooted in failures of accountability. Unlike parliaments and corporate boards, university councils lack effective mechanisms for principals to discipline agents. In parliaments, voters can replace elected representatives; in corporations, shareholders can vote out directors. Both systems close the delegation–accountability loop, ensuring alignment between principals and outcomes. University councils, however, are self-perpetuating bodies dominated by external appointees, and in recent decades they are typically from corporate backgrounds. As neither producers nor consumers of universities’ core product—knowledge creation and dissemination—they have minimal intrinsic stake in academic outcomes leaving councils detached from the university’s core mission. This misalignment fosters mission drift, weakens oversight, and contributes to repeated scandals. Because councils largely appoint their own successors, they remain insulated from meaningful scrutiny, unlike boards or parliaments where underperformance is sanctioned externally. Restoring accountability requires giving academic staff and students a renewed oversight role, alongside clear safeguards for the public interest. Because academics and students are both producers and consumers of knowledge, they have a direct and enduring stake in its quality. We recommend two mechanisms to do this are:
1. Academic Senates empowered to appoint and review council members, ensuring councils reflect the university’s purpose.
2. Robust Committee Systems that embed staff and student voices in decision-making, reduce information asymmetries, and align incentives with academic purposes.

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Maarten De Brauwer @maartendb.bsky.social · Sep 4

Job opening! CSIRO @csiropublishing.bsky.social is currently hiring 2 #eDNA Postdoctoral Fellowships!

sednasociety.com/2025/09/04/j...

Job opportunities: 2 Postdoctoral Fellowships at CSIRO

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is currently recruiting two eDNA Postdoctoral Fellows. Applications close on October 5th. More information and links below. CSIRO Postdoctoral Fell…

sednasociety.com

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Southern eDNA Society @sednasociety.bsky.social · Sep 3

Great news! We are restarting our eDNA webinar series this year to share exciting new research with the eDNA community.

Our first webinar is by Josh Koh (DCCEEW): Explainable Multimodal Machine Learning Using Combined environmental DNA and Biogeographic Features for Ecosystem Biomonitoring

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Physalia-courses@Online @physaliacourses.bsky.social · Sep 1

For the first time, our course goes fully offline with @angmcgaughran.bsky.social ! 🎉

🎥 Recorded lectures
📄 Annotated hands-on scripts
💬 1 week of Slack support

Designed for a global audience and flexible learning 🌍✨

If interested: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

INVASION GENOMICS IN R

8th, 10th and 11th September 2025

www.physalia-courses.org

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Australian Society for Fish Biology @austsocfishbiol.bsky.social · Aug 31

#PhD opportunities at UTS in seadragon #ecology and #conservation 🐟

🏢 UTS Fish Ecology Lab, University of Technology Sydney
📍 #Sydney
💰 Normal graduate research support + $5,000pa scholarship for up to 3 yrs

📨 Contact Prof David Booth: profiles.uts.edu.au/David.Booth

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Society for Conservation Biology @society4conbio.bsky.social · Aug 13

SCB’s 2025 Graduate Student Research Awards are open!
Ten $1,000 grants for grad students advancing #biodiversity conservation. You can use the funds for travel, field gear, or materials. Apply now + read guidelines: conbio.org/mini-sites/s...
#grants #conservation #studentawards

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Australian Society for Fish Biology @austsocfishbiol.bsky.social · Aug 24

#PhD #opportunity optimising #seagrass restoration at the University of Tasmania

📍#Hobart #Tasmania
💰$33,511 pa scholarship
🚨Deadline: Wed 1 October 2025

👀https://www.utas.edu.au/research/degrees/available-projects?id=1948

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Australian Society for Fish Biology @austsocfishbiol.bsky.social · Aug 25

#JobOpportunity: Tasmanian Government is #hiring…

🎣 Manager – Recreational Fisheries
🗓️ permanent, full time
💰 $129,302 to $136,089

👀 careers.pageuppeople.com/759/cw/en/jo...

🚨Deadline: Tue 02 Sep

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Australian Society for Fish Biology @austsocfishbiol.bsky.social · Aug 27

#PhD opportunities at UNSW in fish passage and fishways design 🐟

🚨22 Sept
🏢 UNSW Water Research Laboratory
📍 Sydney
💰 Scholarships available

📨 Jasmin Martino: www.linkedin.com/in/jasmin-ma...
📨 Iain Suthers: www.unsw.edu.au/staff/iain-s...
📨 Stefan Felder: www.unsw.edu.au/staff/stefan...

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Professor Euan Ritchie @euanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 19

"Australia has the second-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in the OECD…This has resulted in an endless chase for dollars (international students & “the next big thing”) rather than thinking about what an educated Australia should look like” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Universities such as mine are making poor decisions, and we’re not allowed to know why

UTS has announced a “pause” on enrolments in 100 courses. Vacating these critically important areas diminishes not only the brand of UTS but the state it was designed to benefit.

www.smh.com.au

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