For more than a year, South Australia's coastal waters have been experiencing one of the worst marine environmental disasters in Australia's history.

A harmful algal bloom has spread across around 20,000 square kilometres of coastline, killing millions of marine animals and affecting more than 800 species. Most of the attention has understandably focused on dead fish, sharks and beach closures. But beneath the surface, countless marine invertebrates are also being lost.

Sea stars, sea urchins, octopus, squid, cuttlefish, crustaceans, corals and sponges might not make the headlines, but they are the animals that hold these ecosystems together. They create habitat, recycle nutrients, support fisheries, feed marine wildlife and help sustain coastal communities and tourism.

This year, the Giant Australian Cuttlefish breeding aggregation at Whyalla - the only one of its kind anywhere in the world - has effectively failed. Southern Calamari numbers have also collapsed, leading to fishing closures across both Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. These are warning signs we simply can't ignore.

At Invertebrates Australia, we exist to conserve the animals that make up more than 97% of Australia's animal species, but receive only a fraction of the conservation attention. This algal bloom has exposed a major gap: we still don't have the long-term monitoring needed to understand what has been lost, which species are recovering, or how to guide recovery. We can't protect what we don't understand.

That's why we're calling on the South Australian Government to:

Implement South Australia's first long-term marine invertebrate monitoring program.
Create a dedicated Marine Ecosystem Recovery Fund.
Develop and publicly release a South Australian Marine Ecosystem Recovery Plan with measurable recovery targets, annual public reporting, and dedicated actions for marine invertebrates and habitat-forming species.
The South Australian and Australian Governments have already committed more than $100 million to respond to this disaster. We welcome that investment. But almost none of it is specifically directed towards understanding and recovering the marine invertebrates that underpin the entire ecosystem.

If you believe South Australia's marine recovery should include the animals that keep our oceans functioning, please add your name.

Together, we can show that marine invertebrates matter, and that their recovery deserves to be part of the solution.

Image credit: @PeterExplores