Sydney Harbour, famous around the world for its beauty and biodiversity, has many artificial shorelines. Around much of the Harbour, the natural shores have been replaced with many kilometres of seawalls. These artificial 'rocky shores' do not support natural biodiversity because many species that are widespread and common on rocky shores, do not live on seawalls. The engineering needed to alter seawalls to make them more hospitable to intertidal animals is probably relatively minor. It is being done by various Councils around the Harbour and they repair and replace seawalls in an innovative collaborative research programme with the Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities.
