Anita Nedosyko goes deep

Above: Marine biologist Anita Nedosyko. Photograph by Keryn Stevens.

Story by Nina Keath.

Anita Nedosyko is speaking to me via phone from the front seat of her dusty 4WD as she overlooks the vast mud flats of Port Germein. She’s travelled there from her campsite in the southern Flinders Ranges seeking phone reception and respite from the forty degree heat. Typically unflappable, she hasn’t let a flat tyre get in the way of our pre-arranged interview.

Anita describes the scene in front of her through her marine biologist lens: ‘The tide is out and I’m looking across one kilometre of rich, beautiful mud flats. They’re filled with shore birds, crustaceans and marine life.’ But this idyllic scene is tainted by Anita’s knowledge of the damage caused to this environment by the leaching of lead and heavy metals from the Port Pirie smelter. It’s an example of an acute problem overlaying longer term chronic degradation of our entire marine ecosystem – degradation that Anita has tracked in her own lifetime. Growing up on the Yorke Peninsula, Anita spent every spare moment snorkelling and exploring the beachfront. She recalls, ‘I had a deep fascination with all the marine life and critters and wanted to be at the beach as much as I could. Over time, I grew a sense of ownership and custodianship.’

This sense of personal responsibility was heightened by the changes she observed. ‘I’ve snorkelled certain places all my life and they’re still beautiful, but the schools of fish are smaller than when I was a child and there is less diversity,’ she explains. ‘I feel such sadness and grief knowing that our extinction rate in Australia is one of the worst in the world. Nature needs a voice and an advocate, and I’ve got a passion for trying to address the ecological crisis that we’re in.’ Anita channels this drive through her role as Marine Restoration Coordinator at not-for-profit The Nature Conservancy where she is making real strides towards regenerating some of our most degraded marine environments.

Now a Fleurieu local, she’s working to restore shellfish reefs in Port Noarlunga and Kangaroo Island, while also managing restored reefs in Glenelg and Windara. Her goal is to restore shellfish reefs right around the Fleurieu and South Australia, along with seagrass meadows and salt marshes. These habitats are important nursery

Above left: Leather jackets feeding on the Windara Reef after only eight months of restoration. Above right: Georges Bay oyster reef.

grounds for many fish – wild and commercial species alike. Her work therefore has implications not just for our natural environment but also for the seafood industry and our economy.

As an ecologist, Anita knows that successful restoration can’t be achieved by focusing on a single habitat alone. In nature, healthy systems have complexity and diversity and the same is true of societies. We are not separate from nature and Anita’s work plumbs these depths and intricacies: ‘I work right across different marine habitats, social systems and governance networks. They’re all inextricably linked. These problems are complex and big, so you do need to work right across the system and have a collaborative focus.’

For some, this could be overwhelming, but Anita says simply, ‘I’ve always been idealistic and believed that people are, at their core, good and that we can solve these big challenges together. I’ve got a lot of hope. It’s important to bring that energy in all conservation work. Being cynical and negative gets us nowhere.’

Whether she’s working five metres underwater with volunteers seeding a newly regenerated reef with baby oysters, project managing construction contractors on a barge at sea, negotiating terms with potential funders of a new project in a boardroom, or posing for media with politicians, Anita brings a deeply held conviction that we all have it in us to make a positive difference. She also brings rigour. As a scientist, everything that Anita does is evidence based. However, beyond the scientific papers and journals she also regularly seeks out the knowledge of community members. Their insights are precious, as Anita explains, ‘I value so highly the expertise of the community. People along the coastline have deep knowledge and custodianship of their patch. By talking to them you get to learn. It’s why Indigenous knowledge is so important. I’ve had just thirty-seven years of knowledge, but they’ve got 60,000 years of inherited knowledge and continuous culture.’

It could be tempting to lose hope in the face of the devastation our modern culture has wrought in little more than two centuries, but Anita thinks we can reverse our current trajectory. And she has a strong record of achievement to back up this view. Our marine environments are regenerating because of her efforts and the groundswell of similarly passionate marine enthusiasts from all walks of life working beside her.

I can hear her smiling down the phone as she says, ‘I am so excited to be doing conservation projects on the Fleurieu. It’s where I live and the community is so engaged and passionate about our coastline.’