Conservation Corner

GBR Biology offers hand’s on citizen science to divers

Experience Co. is Australia’s leading adventure

and tourism company operating ‘mild to wild’ experiences across multiple divisions with GBR Biology being one of these.

GBR Biology is the largest team of marine biologist and indigenous cultural guides with unmatched professionalism and local knowledge operating in Great Barrier Reef Tourism.

The new $7m marine science and tourism pontoon, Reef Magic, which launched in April has a purposebuilt onboard marine science laboratory and provides GBR Biology with an additional platform to carry out the important conservation work done by the team.

With sustainability and the reef’s long-term protection the priority, the GBR Biology team are passionate about sharing knowledge and connecting guests to the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef and creating memorable experiences through on-board presentations and guided snorkelling adventures. Spending time with guests in the water, allows the team to frequently monitor sites and increase awareness on the dynamic state of the reef. From this, extensive site knowledge has been gained, which has laid a solid foundation to build research projects and reef education programmes to schools.

GBR Biology through Reef Magic was the first organisation in Australia to implement and scientifically trial the use of Mars Reef Stars to stabilise coral rubble fields on the Great Barrier Reef. Currently Reef Magic has installed 439 Reef Stars with 6,480 coral fragments of opportunity. Through this, 55 different species of coral have been identified which represent a diversity of coral growth forms and looks like a natural coral reef. After the first installation of Reef Stars, they have seen a 50% increase in coral cover.

Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) are a natural coral predator within the Great Barrier Reef and are most famous for their capability to go from a very low density to high density populations. When these outbreaks occur on coral reefs, they can have devastating effects in a short period of time.

After noticing an increase in juvenile numbers at the Reef Magic site, GBR Biology started their juvenile CoTS research project. In the time from 2014 to now GBR Biology has collected around the 13,000 juvenile CoTS (<150mm). This research programme has provided valuable insight into juvenile CoTS ecology that may be useful to innovative programmes involved in the suppression of future outbreaks.

The Kul-Bul project which GBR Biology is also involved in is a collaborative reef health programme based on Traditional Owner perspectives and contemporary knowhow. It has a holistic approach to monitor and evaluate coral reef health from combining recent modern scientific reef health data collected by our team with 60,000 years of Indigenous Ecological knowledge. The purpose is to create a functional decision tree to develop comprehensive site stewardship plans to manage Yirrganydji Sea Country at indigenous tourism sites visited by Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel. Hastings Reef has been identified as a Reef of cultural and socio-economic value and there is a plan to deliver reef intervention techniques to boost coral reef resilience at this important reef. This project is a collaboration between Dawul Aboriginal Corporation and GBR Biology and Reef Restoration Foundation.

Just recently the Cotton On Foundation have donated $2m dollars to the Reef Co-operative of which GBR Biology are part of to implement interventions on Hastings Reef. n

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