Underwater wind turbines, marine plastic pollution and coral resistance to ocean acidification will be discussed at a WA Museum forum in Fremantle tomorrow.

Celebrating Oceans Initiatives 2013 is an annual one-day event hosted by the UWA Oceans Institute.

Professor Michael Crawford, director of the institute of brain chemistry and human nutrition at Imperial College of London, will explain how the rise in brain disorders has focused research into a radical reappraisal of the nutritional needs of the brain.

UWA PhD student Julia Reisser will give a lecture on plastic pollution in waters around Australia and Winthrop Professor Malcolm McCulloch will discuss how coral systems adapt to increasing acidification in the ocean.

Ocean engineer Scott Draper will provide details of new research to place wind turbines underwater.

“These turbines have thicker blades and fatter foundations because the tidal forces are higher,” Dr Draper told the Herald.

“The kinetic energy is larger because the density of water is higher.”

Dr Draper says these tidal stream systems worked more efficiently in tidal areas such as WA’s Kimberley.

First conceived in the 1970s, tidal stream generators, also referred to as tidal energy converters, extract energy from the tides which can be stored until needed.

“We need to do a resource assessment for all types of renewable energy in WA,” he says. “We are engaging with offshore groups to calculate the physics of the ocean environment.”

by CARMELO AMALFI