Townsville is justifiably proud it has the Cowboys competing in the National Rugby League. The Crocs are among the best basketball team in the country and attract similar community support.

There’s another local team that’s competing on the world stage and doing better than any other you could name.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has paid its dues over the last 30 years and is now standing up to be counted.

Marine Science is a relatively new ‘code’. It wasn’t until the advent of SCUBA Diving, that coral eco-systems became accessible.

In that time, AIMS has done the hard yards in building a store of knowledge on what is the most complex habitat imaginable.

AIMS is headed up by Professor Stephen Hall. Professor Hall, or Stephen as he prefers to be known, has a striking resemblance to (Midnight Oil lead singer) Peter Garrett. Not only is he tall, lean and bald, he is expansive, focused and passionate about his discipline and his team.

The simplicity of that statement is misleading. The fact is that mankind knows more about the moon than what’s in the oceans.

AIMS stands above any other institution in the world in its command of knowledge and processes that make up coral reef systems.

It shares that knowledge unilaterally and is referred to for objective, independent and authoritative advice which underpins the activities of a range of stakeholders including legislators, industry, reef managers, educators and the public.

While impartiality and scientific excellence is the foundation of its credibility, AIMS is looking forward to making a greater impact in increasing the standard of living for all Australians and indeed, the world community.

Central to that goal is developing partnerships. In the first instance, that’s with other leading reef institutions, principally the Townsville based James Cook University, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the CRC Reef Research Centre.

This collaboration of knowledge, resources and facilities has resulted in Townsville being able to sustain the greatest concentration of tropical marine scientists anywhere in the world.

The result is the development of technology with humanitarian and commercial significance.

Toxitech, for example, is a spin off company of AIMS and James Cook University. It will allow for the portable testing for saxitoxin in seafood and drinking water.

Saxitoxin is a toxin so deadly that it is listed as a schedule 1 chemical weapon under the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention.

On the commercial front, AIMS, in collaboration with James Cook University has developed a partnership with Australian agrichemical company, Nufarm Ltd, to identify chemicals which could form the next generation of herbicides that selectively kill weeds, leaving crops to grow.

Stephen admits those kinds of technologies don’t immediately strike you as emerging from marine science.

"In reality, that’s what’s happens," he said. "The idea that there is a wealth of animals and plants out there capable of solving problems for themselves, that we can adapt to solve our problems, is quite beguiling."

"We’re sitting on that gold mine and simply have to find ways to understand how those problems are solved and make the most of them. That’s a real intellectual challenge.

"We could never tap that huge reserve of opportunity by ourselves. We have to partner with others to make the most of that. Very often it is a commercial partner. All in all, it is about making the most of our assets."

The sky’s the limit for AIMS which is now in the process of implementing a business plan to market and finance ever more innovative technology that promises to make the world sit up and notice.