THE mysterious paper nautilus could hold clues to the warming and acidification of the world’s ocean.
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Montague Island located on the NSW Far South Coast off Narooma just happens to be a hotspot for encounters with paper nautilus and occasionally hundreds if not thousands of the dead and dying creatures wash up on its shores.
University of Sydney student Kennedy Wolfe has just completed his honours project into how the oceans are changing due to climate change and part of that was the likely impact on the paper nautilus or Argonauta nodosa.
“We hardly know anything about them and that’s what makes it so interesting,” he said.
“Since the shell is so thin it makes them especially vulnerable to dissolution from ocean acidification.
“It’s unknown where they live and even I have not seen one alive. Most people see them when they are dead washed up on the beach.”
Kennedy was in Narooma last weekend to inspect the island and meet with National Parks and Marine Parks rangers to check out their collection of shells and to get as much information as possible.
He is thinking about making these creatures the subject of PhD and plans to return if and when a mass stranding occurs.
Montague Island also happened to be a key location when it came to ocean warming as hot water flows down in the East Australian Current and so the life around it is even more vulnerable to ocean warming.
Inside the paper-thin shell lives an octopus-like animal that is thought to be able to regulate its depth in the water column.
The shell is used as a buoyancy chamber and also to hold its eggs.
Argonauts are preyed upon by tunas, billfishes, and dolphins
While in the area, he also spoke on the subject at a meeting of the Nature Coast Marine Group.
