As a lifelong recreational fisher born and raised in Far North Queensland the Wet Tropics Rivers, Estuaries and Great Barrier Reef has always been part of Phil’s life. Some of his earliest memories are snorkelling with his father during family weekends at Green Island.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in marine biology at James Cook University Phil worked in fisheries biology projects at JCU and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. From there he moved to work in the Great Barrier Reef tourism industry as a marine biologist and research partner.
In 2007 Phil began working for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority supporting communities and reef stakeholders to engage in stewardship and sustainability actions that help protect the Reef.
Since 2018 Phil has provided consultancy services and project management support for projects where people, the environment and sustainability overlap. Phil is currently kept busy working as a project manager for OzFish Unlimited based in Cairns. Here he manages projects supporting fish habitat restoration in urban waterways, removing fish passage barriers to improve habitat connectivity and facilitating the CreekWatch citizen science program in the Cairns and Cassowary Coast region.
Phils presentation will introduce OzFish Unlimited and the great diversity of fish habitat restoration and citizen science work they do around Australia before taking a closer look at the projects they have underway in North Queensland.