News & Events

Reef Check Australia trials new protocol to monitor zoning on the Great Barrier Reef

To mark Dive into Earth Day on 22 April, Reef Check Australia coordinated a visit to James Cook University’s Orpheus Island Research Station (JCU-OIRS) for a group of local community volunteers to carry out a fishing line clean up and test the first stage of a new monitoring protocol that has the support of Project AWARE, JCU-OIRS and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). 

The first task on the four day visit was to remove fishing line and other debris from the reef at a site at Orpheus Island and neighboring Pelorus Island.  The volunteer team discovered a lot of fishing line at both sites and had to make two dives in order to collect it all, highlighting what a large impact fishing can have on the reef.

The ‘clean’ sites were then surveyed for the abundance and size of coral trout, popular catches with fishermen to the region but also an ecologically important species on the reef.  The volunteer team found significantly more coral trout in the green zone than blue, and that the coral trout in the green zone were also generally of a larger size.  A protocol for snorkellers was developed alongside the one for volunteer divers, which will allow the local recreational fishing community to get involved in monitoring the zones.

This work fits in with current research being conducted by GBRMPA and JCU into the effectiveness of green zones as an environmental management tool.  It is hypothesized that green zones will help to restock blue zones through adult fish spill over and larval recruitment.  JCU researchers are excited about having their data corroborated by local volunteers who will be able to expand upon the sites mentioned and continue monitoring into the long term.

The success of this Dive Into Earth Day collaboration between Reef Check Australia, GBRMPA, JCU-OIRS and Project AWARE has resulted in future plans to coordinate annual surveys of these baseline sites to monitor the reoccurrence of fishing debris and presence of coral trout and expand the program to compare other sites that are not currently monitored by researchers.