The Australian Institute of Marine Science has been monitoring the Great Barrier Reef for more than 15 years. While the research has helped managers devise management polices based on sound scientific information, still much is yet to be achieved.

Many excellent small-scale studies have shed some light on the larger picture, but the AIMS Long-term Monitoring Program is the first serious attempt to document both the large-scale condition of the Reef and to describe long-term trends in fish and coral communities.

A 1993 Australian Federal Government inquiry (Resource Assessment Commission Coastal Zone Inquiry) recommended numerous changes to the way in which Australia’s coastal zone is managed. The many recommendations included an expansion of coastal monitoring for three purposes: a) to provide baseline information about the coastal environment; b) to identify the impacts of uses; and, c) to identify the effectiveness of management arrangements. Baseline information about our marine environment also helps us to meet our international obligations for ecologically sustainable development.

Similarly, the goal of the Federal Government’s Ocean Rescue 2000 program is to create a system of marine protected areas that are representative of all the coastal marine habitats around Australia. Not only is this initiative creating a demand for more information about the variety and abundance of marine habitats surrounding the continent, it also requires reliable and uniform methods of obtaining such information. In response to these demands, AIMS researchers are extending knowledge gained through many years of monitoring coral reefs to include not only more of the Great Barrier Reef, but Australia’s northwest reef systems and the coral reefs and mangroves of the Asia-Pacific region.

AIMS researchers use a variety of methods in order to record long- and short-term changes in the coral reef communities they are monitoring. On the Great Barrier Reef, broadscale surveys, benthos studies, fish counts and water quality monitoring all help to give a picture of the long-term condition of the reef and the changes which might be occurring there. During the last three years, these refined methodologies have also been applied to build up a comparable picture of coral reef status along Australia’s west coast. Consistency in methods and the extensive experience in reef assessment techniques which have been developed by AIMS for Australia’s reef monitoring needs have also found acceptance internationally. Many countries monitoring reefs in the Asia-Pacific region are using the same methods developed for the GBR and west coast of Australia, in order to understand some of the changes which are occurring on reefs in rapidly developing regions.

Monitoring in the northwest of Western Australia - Some of Australia’s most significant coral reefs occur in the northwest, including large offshore atolls (such as the Rowley Shoals and Scott Reef), Australia’s largest fringing reef (Ningaloo Reef) and extensive reefs associated with nearshore islands.

AIMS researchers in Western Australia are focusing on the incremental development of a large-scale regional assessment of the northwest’s coral reefs, capitalising on the experience and methodologies which have evolved from the GBR long-term monitoring effort. Initially, scientists have concentrated their efforts on characterising the benthic and fish communities found at the remote offshore atolls to the north (Rowley Shoals & Scott Reef) and following changes in those communities through time. As this research enters a more mature phase, the WA team will begin to look more closely at the inshore and more southerly locations, particularly in the region between Port Hedland and the Ningaloo Reef Tract. As data is added for each new location a broader regional picture of reef status will evolve, which will be comparable in geographical extent to the Institute’s current assessment of the GBR on the east coast. The consistency in methods on a national basis will enable direct comparison of coral and fish communties at local, regional and national spatial scales, providing a valuable tool for coastal zone management.

Managing for the future - Even in the absence of human activites, coral reefs are continually changing through natural processes. The broad scope and long-term nature of the program will help managers to assess the range of natural changes and identify those changes that may require management action. The Institute’s coral reef monitoring methods have been adopted as international standards for training researchers in Asian Pacific nations wishing to begin long-term monitoring programs of their own. In many of these nations, coral reef fisheries provide the primary means of sustenance for large portions of the population. By helping these nations better manage their marine resources, AIMS scientists are assisting the people of these countries in paving their own way to a more secure and environmentally sound future.