“Growth will come. Better in an area that already has certain facilities, than an area with no industry yet that will be disrupted.”

The port of Fremantle (WA) will soon reach capacity, so the Western Australian government is looking into options to expand. The construction of a second port sounds logical, but where should it be, and what effects will it have on the ocean and everything that lives in the water? Professor Jennifer Verduin is an oceanographer at Murdoch University in Perth, and is involved with a study of the ecological effects.

Oceanographer Professor Jennifer Verduin. Credit: Murdoch University