What Lies Under the Water - WA Marine Life

For most of us, what lies under the sea is a complete mystery. The closest you may come to sea life could be the piece of fish that goes with your chips on a Friday night. A coastline as long as WA’s means that there are as many different habitats underwater as you will find anywhere on dry land. On one hand, you have the shallows where fishing, swimming, and snorkelling take place but on the other hand, the drop off of the continental shelf is not that far away from the shore either. If you have ever read Jules Verne’s science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you may recall the wonders described by Professor Aronnax as he walked through a sponge garden in a hard-hat diving suit. You do not have to risk yourself underwater to see such lifeforms, the Museum proudly displays a range of them right here. As you can see here, sponges, which are animals, grow in a multitude of forms. They flourish in deep water as they do not depend on sunlight for growth. They do rely on clean water and a sufficient supply of nutrients to flourish and, most importantly for other life forms, filter out particles from the water as they feed. However, that they are delicate is obvious, and they are very vulnerable to destructive practices such as trawling, dredging and undersea mining.