Project Leader: Hugh Sweatman

A scientifically rigorous record of change is an essential component of good management of the Great Barrier Reef and provides a model for others to copy.

This Project was designed to provide long-term quantitative data about the status of corals, algae, reef fishes and crown-of-thorns starfish over the Great Barrier Reef. These data are a primary information source for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority as well as a basis for studies of abundance and population change in selected organisms on a large geographic scale.

Apart from the resources of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia also possesses significant coral reefs in Western Australia. Rapidly increasing tourism, petroleum development and more traditional activities (fishing) in these regions has created a need for baseline studies to assess future changes on these reefs, which the Project will implement during the triennium.

Coral reefs and mangroves are seen increasingly as valuable yet declining resources for coastal communities in the Asia-Pacific region. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development laid out a plan of action to halt this decline and called specifically for international cooperation in capacity-building. The Institute’s techniques have been adopted as international monitoring standards. One of the activities of this project is to train personnel throughout the Asia-Pacific region to gather quantitative data and to interpret these data to assist environmental managers to make informed decisions.

Goals

• to report on the health of Australian reefs;
• to estimate the impact of human activities, and a range of natural disturbances (eg crown-of-thorns outbreaks, cyclones) on Australian reefs;
• to provide training for monitoring of reefs in other countries;
• to develop and refine methods for assessing the health of coral reefs.

Long term monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef (Leader: Hugh Sweatman)

Broad-scale surveys of crown-of-thorns densities and censuses of corals and fishes form the basis for regular status reports. A set of reefs is monitored on an annual basis, others are sampled when specific issues arise.

Interactive data summaries
Long-term monitoring products

Monitoring Western Australian reefs (Leader: Andrew Heyward)

Status reports are being compiled for a series of Western Australian reefs as a baseline for measurement of impacts from human activities. This study will monitor the recovery of Scott Reef from the coral bleaching episode of 1998 which resulted in the death of 80% of the reef-building corals.

Building the capacity to assess reef resources in the Asia-Pacific region (Leader: Will Oxley)

Australia’s expertise in monitoring and reef assessment is being extended to neighbouring countries as part of an international effort to reverse the global decline of coral reefs.

Links with other AIMS projects

Sustaining Coral Reefs

• studies of the biogeography of soft corals on the Great Barrier Reef;
• collaboration on understanding large-scale patterns and changes.

Supporting Tropical Fisheries

• participation in assessment of effects of line fishing.

Predicting the Coastal Marine Environment

Links with other organisations

Queensland Department of Environment, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and partnership agencies in foreign countries responsible for monitoring the condition of coral reefs.

Links with strategic directions