CITIZEN science projects on the Great Barrier Reef offer something for everyone, with opportunities aplenty to (wet)suit up to help safeguard one of the world's most complex and diverse ecosystems.
The Eye on the Reef program: Brainchild of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, this environmental monitoring and assessment program enables anyone to play an active part in the reef's long-term protection. Anything helps – whether it’s just five minutes – to help build a broader picture of reef-wide ecosystem health and resilience.
Dive right in: Reef Check Australia, a not-for-profit organisation, works to protect reefs and oceans by empowering and engaging the community in hands-on research and education. Volunteers can literally dive in and train to become a coral reef surveyor (snorkelling or diving).
Project Manta: This University of Queensland-led multidisciplinary study of the ecology and biology of manta rays aims to track and protect two endangered species of manta rays. People are encouraged to take photos of the rays for Project Manta’s Facebook page. If a new manta is identified, the photographer has naming rights.
Whale of a time: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has joined forces with researchers and tourism operators to better understand the biology and behaviour of the dwarf minke whales which visit the northern reef in winter. Tourists who join operators endorsed to conduct swim-with-whales encounters automatically moonlight as citizen scientists, with each operator required to provide data to the Minke Whale Project (James Cook University).
The Great Barrier Reef Citizen Science Alliance: This alliance takes the leg work out of finding the right project on land or underwater, mapping opportunities across the reef and throughout south-east Queensland. The foundation will soon launch its third annual ReefBlitz event. In 2015, more than 1400 volunteers recorded 226 species in Townsville and on Magnetic Island (where snorkel surveys recorded more than 50 mollusc species, including the rediscovery of Peasiella roepstorffiana snails which haven’t been observed for a decade, and more than 50 fish species).
CoTS-what? The Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators works with unemployed youth, training them as recreational dive supervisors in the crown of thorns starfish (CoTS) control program. It also trains tourism operators and community-based organisations to search and lethally inject the coral-eating starfish, responsible for an estimated 40 per cent of the reef's total decline in coral cover.
QUT roboticists are close to completing work on a world-first autonomous marine robot – aptly named COTSbot – designed to cruise the reef with one purpose: to seek out and control infestations of the crown of thorns starfish.
Learn from the best: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is home to a network of internationally-acclaimed research stations including stations on Lizard Island, Heron Island (available to guests at Heron Island Resort) and Orpheus Island.
Opportunities exist to volunteer and/or tour facilities to meet some of the world's leading scientists.
Chip off the old block: Volunteers are integral to the success of Townsville’s Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium, home to the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium. About 40 volunteers are inducted every year to educate and engage with visitors.
“Some people love it so much they stay forever – our oldest volunteer is about to turn 90,” said director Fred Nucifora.
Reef HQ’s turtle hospital rehabilitates and releases sick and injured turtles back into the reef (home to six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle).
Sobering last thought: A recent World Economic Forum report estimates the ocean currently holds more than 150 million tonnes of plastics and warns that in a business-as-usual scenario it will contain more plastics than fish by 2050.
Information:
* Information courtesy Tourism and Events Queensland.
