Reef Check Australia is an innovative citizen science focused charity dedicated to educating and empowering community volunteers to better understand, appreciate and protect oceans and marine environments.
We help people help reefs by providing the tools for the community to take positive action for our reefs. Through our network of volunteers, we engage in citizen science, connect people with reef science, and undertake local conservation projects.
Reef Check exists because the scale of monitoring and action required to help look out for reefs called for a network of local people united on a global scale. In 1999, the first ever global Reef Check survey into coral reef health showed the power of community involvement with scientific studies – better known as citizen science! It also shed light on the extent of human impact on reefs around the world.
Reef Check Australia has been helping people to help reefs since 2001. Our programs offer a platform to bring together science, community and positive local action.
Reefs are under threat, but we also know they are amazingly resilient systems and, with suitable management and protection, we can support resilient reefs into the future.
We have a window of opportunity to take strong action. Action must happen on every scale – local, regional, national and global. We believe communities play a critical role in this process. Now is the time to act together to save our reefs.
In 1993, scientists from around the world met to discuss the future of coral reefs. The meeting highlighted how little data was available. There was not enough information to form a picture of the status of the world's reefs.
This prompted marine ecologist, Dr. Gregor Hodgson, to develop a protocol for non-scientists to collect reliable, highly focused data on coral reef health. He founded Reef Check International in 1996 and, in 1997, conducted the first ever global survey of coral reef health.
In 2001, a highly passionate individual and marine scientist, Jos Hill, set up Reef Check Australia, to focus in detail on the health of the vitally-important Great Barrier Reef. More than fifteen years later, we're still going strong and our research is becoming more and more useful over the long term.
Our activities got their start on the northern end of the GBR, expanding to encompass Port Douglas, Cairns, Townsville, the Whitsundays and some prize spots on the outer GBR. In 2007, we kicked-off monitoring activities on the subtropical rocky reefs of South East Queensland. In 2011/2012, we expanded our projects to Central Queensland, setting up new monitoring locations on Heron Island and the Fraser Coast. In 2013 we launched Reef Check in Western Australia, adding the important reefs of the Ningaloo Coast to our list of locations.
We currently have more than 60 priority monitoring locations along the Queensland coast and recently expanded our volunteer reef health monitoring activities to Western Australia’s Ningaloo Coast.
Visit our Reef Health Database to find out details of all of our monitoring locations, as well as what our volunteer survey teams have been finding at each site or check out our Summary Reports.
Coral reefs are essential for life. Reefs shelter coastal communities from extreme weather events, provide sources of food, host unique medical cures, hold important historic records, and support valuable tourism. Traditional Owners maintain strong historic and present connections with sea country. Many coastal communities also associate the reef with their own cultural identity.
Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet with thousands of species relying on reefs for survival. Although coral reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor, they support an estimated 25 percent of all marine life.
Coral reefs are under increasing pressure from both man-made and natural forces, and are rapidly declining throughout the world. Although Australia's reefs are among the best managed in the world, they are not immune to these threats.
Reefs are important to people. CSIRO interviewed thousands of people across coastal Queensland (2014), which reiterated how much people value and feel connected to the Great Barrier Reef.
We need to empower more people help look after this this beautiful, valuable, unique and critically important ecosystem.
Action for our reefs is urgently needed. We have a window of opportunity to act on climate change, the largest threat to coral reefs around the world. This is going to require a movement of informed people taking action at many levels. We believe informed and empowered local communities have a key role to play in this movement.
It’s time to unite. Our approach is to collaborate with a range of partners, including tourism operators, environmental groups, schools, universities, government agencies, businesses, and individuals interested in marine conservation.
Reef Check provides a trusted and inclusive approach to engaging volunteers, collecting long-term reef health data, educating communities, and delivering on-ground action.
In order to improve the health of coral reefs, we need to understand how we're influencing reefs with our actions--both negative and positive. Then we need to build a movement of people that can help take positive action.
Our robust citizen science program approach contributes to this mission by:
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Building capacity for community to collect, understand, share and act on information about reef health |
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Providing locally relevant and globally comparable reef health data
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Filling gaps in available monitoring data |
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Providing site-level reef health data on locations that matter to local communities
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Sharing information that matters to communities in formats that are easy to understand
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Catalysing positive locally-based action for the reef |
RCA is an inclusive citizen science organisation. Our primary purpose is to empower communities to support healthy reefs through hands-on reef research, education and practical conservation.
