Late last year Reef Check Australia joined the University of Queensland's Remote Sensing Research Center on an expedition to Heron Island, as a part of annual reef health surveys along the QLD coastline. We are excited to announce that the RCA Heron Island Reef Health Report for 2019 has now been released!
The results from our most recent surveys indicate that total average hard coral across all sites was consistent with previous years and most sites still had low levels of soft coral.
Whilst coral scarring from unknown causes was reported at 13 of the 14 sites, and hard coral damage was recorded at 9 of the 14 sites, the good news is that debris was recorded at only four sites.
Coral bleaching was recorded on all sites but at relatively low levels. Although the total average coral population bleaching across all sites of 8% is an increase from 2018 levels (3%), this level is consistent with previous records of 8% in 2017 and 5% in 2016.
You can check out the full report here.
We need to give a huge thank you and congratulations to the 2019 Heron Reef Research Team:
Chris Roelfsema, Jodi Salmond, Josh Passenger, Eva Kovacs, Jenni Calcraft, Rodney Borrego, Phil Dunbavan and Doddy Yuwono.
This project was made possible by in-kind support and advice from The University of Queensland’s Remote Sensing Research Centre, Heron Island Research Station and Heron Island Resort
