Heron Island Reef (Health) Check 2018!
April 09, 2019
We're proud to share the monitoring results from our 2018 Heron Island surveys in the newly released Reef Check Australia summary report.
Reef Check Australia has been monitoring sites on Heron Island since 2011 and we continue to work with The University of Queensland’s Remote Sensing Research Centre on this project.
Here's a few titbits from the report to whet your coral appetite! -
The total average hard coral cover recorder across all sites was 42%
Eight out of 15 sites had coral cover greater than 50%
Most sites had low levels of soft coral (eight out of 15 sites)
Coral bleaching was recorded on all sites, but in relatively low levels.
Thanks to The University of Queensland’s Remote Sensing Research Centre, Heron Island Research Station and Heron Island Resort for their in-kind support and advice.
And of course a massive thanks to the 2018 Heron Reef Research Team superstars - Chris Roelfsema, Douglas Stetner, Mitch Lyons, Emma Kennedy, Daniel Harris, Kat Markey, Josh Passenger, Eva Kovacs, Rodney Borrego, Jodi Salmond (who also supplied these awesome images) and Stuart Phinn.
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Reef Check update with Fitzroy Report Card
June 10, 2018
Since 2011, RCA has been monitoring multiple sites on Heron Island as part of a larger collaborative reef research and mapping initiative led by The University of Queensland’s Remote Sensing Research Centre.
Heron Island falls within the Fitzroy Marine Zone. The Fitzroy Partnership is a collective of government, agriculture, resources, industry, research and community interests that partner to deliver annual reports on water quality and ecosystem health in the region. Live coral cover is one of five coral indicators utilised to report on marine condition for the Reef Plan Marine Monitoring Program.
We work with the Fitzroy Partnership to produce an additional summary report on average percent cover of hard and soft coral for motioning sites on Heron Island scored using Reef Plan Reporting scales for nearshore reefs.
2017 results have just been released as additional information with the annual report card. If you want to see some more info on this site, you can check out the Reef Check summary report.
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Its all happening on Heron Island
November 10, 2017
For the seventh consecutive year, an RCA team joined the University of Queensland Remote Sensing Research Centre and James Cook University She Flies Drone teams on Heron Island for a week-long reef health monitoring expedition.
The team surveyed 16 sites around the Island, contributing long-term reef condition data to support a 16 year effort by UQ RSRC to track reef habitat around this beautiful island.
Our busy team reaped the rewards with some amazing scenes of healthy coral, a myriad of sharks and rays and so many turtles! Stay tuned for the Heron Island Report due out shortly!
Huge thanks to the University of Queensland Remote Sensing for leading the expedition, and Heron Island Research Centre and Heron Island Resort for their in-kind support of this project.
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