Head under water for reef monitoring
Head under water for reef monitoring
Divers with clipboards?
Volunteers on the Capricorn Coast have been diving into action by monitoring coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
Head Under Water is a community-based reef monitoring program which gives people the opportunity to do their part for the Reef by monitoring the health of coral and other reef life through diving trips and educational days.
Head Under Water group leader and researcher, Dr Alison Jones, from the Central Queensland University, was an instigator of the group’s formation in response to community interest.
“The idea of the group is that people are actually out being involved and seeing first hand what goes on with research on the reef. It was born out of the community in this region being very concerned and involved with the environment because it’s their backyard,” Dr Jones said.
Volunteers have been monitoring the health of the coral reef to help better understand the changes that occur.
“By feeding information back to the community and to marine managers, it informs people a little better about what is going on with our local reefs,” Dr Jones said.
“You really need that grassroots information about what is happening in the environment before you can make decisions about how to manage it, and that’s one of our aims,” Dr Jones said.
The research component provides valuable data on the Southern Great Barrier Reef region for future monitoring to evaluate the response of corals to environmental changes.
“A changing climate is not something that the everyday man or woman on the street can really do something about, except indirectly. What we can do is manage the smaller issues, so it’s the think global but act local concept,” said Dr Jones.
Head Under Water diver, Jody O’Dell said “Other people can make a difference in helping to look after the reef by being more consciously aware of what they do when they’re out there; by taking personal responsibility for their own behaviour, taking their rubbish with them and not leaving things on the reef that don’t belong there”.
