Much to my relief, I submitted my thesis in June. I’d like to thank my supervisors Steve Swearer and Tim Dempster, my PhD buddy James Shelley, my wife Cait, my son Reuben and my family and friends for all their support over the course of my PhD. I’ll be found in my vege garden for the next couple of months 🙂
It’s been a long time between posts on this website, primarily because I’ve been too busy finishing my thesis! But don’t mistake a lack of online activity for a lack of action – there have been some exciting developments that have come out of the Kimberley Fish project.
Native Australian Animals Trust
Most excitingly, the discovery of 20 new species of fish and naming one after Tim Winton has snowballed into a new trust fund, the Native Australian Animals Trust, with Tim Winton as its patron. The trust aims to support research on Australian wildlife, and its first initiative is the Award for Conservation Research into Northern Australian Animals and their Ecosystems. Find out more about the trust here.
Tim gave a rousing call to arms for conservationists at the launch of the fund (see the video here). We surprised Tim after his talk with a beautiful picture of his eponymous fish drawn by Roger Swainston, perhaps the most famous fish illustrator. Tim was absolutely chuffed.
Here is an ABC new story, an article from the Australian and finally a post on the University of Melbourne alumni website.
State of the Environment Report
The results of my paper published in Global Ecology and Biogeography was included in the 2016 State of the Environment report. The State of the Environment is an environmental ‘report card,’ which assesses pressures, condition and trends, discusses risk and resilience, and makes future projections. The biodiversity section can be found here.
Extra media
The project has been picked up by a few media outlets, including as far afield as Ireland and Florida.
A swell is simply radiating energy from an event across the horizon – The Irish Times
Striking Gold in the Kimberley – Lateral Magazine
Kimberley – Australia’s Hotspot of Freshwater Fish Biodiversity – International Angler
Wildlife Australia
Following our discovery of 20 new species of freshwater fish in the Kimberley, my project has received a fair bit of media attention. Check out some of the links below.
TV
The 7:30 Report on ABC
James Shelley, the other PhD student on the project, interviewed on ABC News Breakfast
The Conversation
The Guardian
ABC Online
The West Australian
NT News
The Courier Mail
And a variety of other sources including the Discovery Channel, Wild Magazine, Melbourne University Pursuit, Science Network WA, Science Daily and Eureka Alert.
RADIO
ABC Radio National
ABC Local Radio
4ZZZ Brisbane
Radio Adelaide
The first paper from my PhD was published today in Global Ecology and Biogeography. The paper uses macroecological relationships to identify conservation hotspots and extinction-prone species in Australia’s freshwater fishes.
Hey folks,
This page is still very much a work in progress, but feel free to have a look at the different sections. If you look into this looking glass fish, potentially you will see the future of this site…
A giant glassfish (Parambassis gulliveri) eyeballs me
Cheers
Matt
Matthew Le Feuvre 