The methods taught have been developed at the Australian Institute of Marine
Science over the last 15 years and have subsequently been adopted by the Global
Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) as global standards for monitoring coral
reef communities.
The primary goal of the GCRMN is to strengthen the capacity of
countries to monitor their own coral reefs in a standardised fashion.
A series of workshops has been held across the Pacific region including
Saipan, Papua New Guinea, and Palau. These workshops have been well received for
their relevance and practical focus in providing useful tools for monitoring and
managing the Pacific Coral Reef Resources in a sustainable fashion.
The emphasis of the training courses is on the practical application of the
Manta Tow (MT) and Line Intercept Transect (LIT) techniques.
The MT technique involves towing a snorkel diver behind a small boat over the
reef slope, while the diver subjectively estimates the percentage cover of live
coral, dead coral and soft coral. Any other aspects of environmental concern,
such as presence of crown-of-thorns starfish or evidence of coral bleaching, are
also noted.
The LIT technique involves divers quantitatively recording the percentage
cover of different benthic lifeforms along 20 m transects on the reef surface.
These techniques combined provide a thorough assessment of the benthic habitat
and can be taught to a level of competency in a relatively short space of
time.
Classroom lessons
