UTS and two other leading Sydney universities have joined forces to create the first research centre to focus on one of the world's richest marine environments, Sydney Harbour.

The new Sydney Harbour Institute of Marine Sciences (SHIMS), officially launched on Tuesday 22 November, is a collaborative venture with Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales.

Despite being the world's largest working harbour, Sydney Harbour is also home to some 600 fish species, along with resident penguins, dolphins and visiting humpback and southern right whales.

The new institute will occupy a prime harbourside site at Chowder Bay - on the harbour's north shore - and will be devoted to learning about and caring for what has been called the world's finest harbour.

The harbour is not only a port, a recreation area and a source of food but the world's most biologically diverse harbour, says Professor Mike Archer, speaking on behalf of the SHIMS consortium. As such it requires a strong, united research focus to be managed sustainably.

"This institute will give Australian scientists an exciting opportunity to lead the world," Professor Archer said. "The harbour we have in Sydney is so full of life and perfectly positioned for the study of the rapidly expanding field of urban marine science. Our findings won't just benefit Sydney but will have applications for harbour-based cities and coastal communities everywhere.

"The institute will provide a meeting place for marine science expertise and encourage collaboration and developments in research and teaching. Research scientists from the three institutions will work together there to learn more about the harbour and its estuary environment, and to train science students."

To symbolise how much remains unknown about the harbour, SHIMS has adopted for its logo the Sydney scorpionfish, a species discovered only recently at Chowder Bay and unique to the harbour.