Over the past few months Reef Check Australia have been working with and consulting Traditional Owners in the Whitsundays region to increase their involvement in monitoring and management of culturally significant sites and species.
In March, Ngaro traditional owners Adrena Pryor and Kurtis Dow joined Reef Check Australia in surveyor training, and reef monitoring at both inshore and offshore sites in the Whitsundays region. Both Adrena and Kurtis learned about reef monitoring and what it takes to collect reef health data. They shared stories of traditional owner sea-country connections and provided advice on new monitoring sites that provide cultural relevance completing spatial coverage in the Whitsundays region. In the coming months we will begin monitoring these new sites, hopefully in partnership with the Ngaro traditional owners in the region.
This consultative work is an integral part of the Reef Check Australia Whitsundays Citizen Science Project is funded by the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. This project is being conducted in partnership with Reef Catchments and Reef Ecologic.
