Lizard Island Research Station By Dr. Anne Hoggett and Dr. Lyle Vail Lizard Island Research Station Managers, Australian Museum After four consecutive years with major environmental disturbances in the Lizard Island area (category 4 cyclones in each of 2014 and 2015 and catastrophic coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017), summer 2018 passed without any disasters for local reefs. Many tiny colonies of branching species survived the cyclones and bleaching and it appears that there has also been some recruitment. These young survivors and the apparent post-disaster recruits are growing at an amazing rate. While the recovery is patchy and the long-term outlook is for stronger cyclones and warmer water, this regrowth is very good to see. The coral spawning in late 2018 even looked a bit like “normal”, after two years of very little spawn in the water due to the absence of large branching colonies. Some numbers for 2018: • 122 scientists and research students from 38 institutions in 9 countries conducted 100 research projects • 107 new publications based on research at LIRS were added to the
Lizard Island
Above: Aerial view of Casuarina beach, Loomis reef and Palfrey and South Islands © Colin Price; Below: Small coral colonies in a regenerating reef flat at Lizard Island. © Anne Hoggett/Lyle Vail collection, bringing the total to more than 2,280 • 350 species were added to the online Lizard Island Field Guide (lifg.austraianmuseum.net.au), bringing the total to 2,530 • 9 new Fellows – a record number, commenced research at LIRS (funded by Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation (5 PhD students and 4 early career researchers) • 2 new grants were awarded for Crown-of-Thorns Starfish research thanks to funding from the Ian Potter Foundation and the LIRRF • 2 new grants were awarded for research into plastic pollution thanks to funding from the LIRRF
training/certification requirements (AS/NZ2815.6) for scientific divers are under review. It is too early to tell what the revised standards will contain although there will likely be some positives including greater recognition of recreational training pathways for scientific divers. However, it appears that there will be serious downsides such as a mandatory minimum dive team size of three and very high levels of diver training for dive supervisors. It is likely that there will be a call for public comment on the revised diving standards in 2019. We urge all scientific divers to respond to this call when it’s made.
Standards covering operational procedures (AS/NZ 2299.2) and THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY
43
