East Australian Current

[1][2] The EAC also acts to transport tropical marine fauna to habitats in sub-tropical regions along the south east Australian coast.

As it skirts along the east coast of Australia, it carries a large amount of warm tropical water from the Equator southward.

This contributes to the conditions which allow the Great Barrier Reef to thrive, keeping the east coast around 18 °C year round instead of dropping to 12 °C in the winter.

As instabilities in the current develop due to a westward Tasman Front, the meander pinches off to form eddies once or twice per year.

If there is a strong northerly wind, it will push the current even further offshore, allowing deep water to rise up the coast, bringing nutrients up to the surface.

[8] In the 2003 Disney/Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, the EAC is portrayed as a superhighway that fish and sea turtles use to travel down the east coast of Australia.

The characters Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) join Crush (Andrew Stanton), Squirt (Nicholas Bird) and a group of baby and adult sea turtles and fish in using the EAC to help them travel to Sydney Harbour to find his son Nemo (Alexander Gould).

Every summer, thousands of fish are swept from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney Harbour and further south;[9] however, the current is not nearly as rapid as depicted in the film.