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Marine Monitoring Program

Monitoring programs in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park help the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and communities to protect the Great Barrier Reef for the future.

The water quality and ecosystem health monitoring program (Marine Monitoring Program) in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon will assess the long-term effectiveness of the Australian and Queensland Government’s Reef Water Quality Protection Plan and Reef Rescue Package.

Why monitor water quality?

Research has shown the quality of water flowing into the Marine Park has declined over many years and this is affecting the health of the animals, plants and habitats of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems.

The value of the Great Barrier Reef and the sustainable development of its catchment are important to all Australians. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the potential impact that declining water quality has on the health of the Marine Park. One of the best ways to do this is through long-term monitoring programs such as the Marine Monitoring Program.

Reef Water Quality Protection Plan

The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan) is a joint initiative of the Queensland and Australian Governments. The goal of the Reef Plan is to ‘halt and reverse the decline in water quality entering the Reef within ten years’. Through Reef Plan, governments and communities are taking action to reverse the decline in water quality by focusing on decreasing the amounts of nutrients, sediments and other pollutants being discharged into waterways in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

The implementation of the Reef Plan, Reef Rescue and other initiatives to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park will contribute to a healthier ecosystem. By taking action to improve water quality, people involved in these major initiatives help to protect the habitats, plants and animals of the Marine Park and ensure the long-term security of the communities and industries that rely on a healthy Reef and its catchment.

Both the Reef Plan and Reef Rescue support partnerships between Regional Natural Resource Management Boards, governments, non-government groups and associations, industry sectors and the community. Involvement from educational and research institutions will also be vital to achieving the goals of the Reef Plan and the targets of Reef Rescue.

A key component of the joint initiatives is the implementation of the Marine Monitoring Program in the Reef lagoon (Strategy I.4 In Reef Plan and the water quality monitoring and reporting component of Reef Rescue) to assess the effectiveness of their implementation in improving water quality.

Reef Water Quality Protection Plan [ Acrobat Format 1402.40KB ]
Caring for our Country

Who is monitoring?

Who is undertaking the Marine Monitoring Program

The GBRMPA is responsible for the implementation and reporting of the Marine Monitoring Program in the inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef. Management of the monitoring program is carried out by the GBRMPA, in partnership with community groups, and a consortium of monitoring providers with a long-term track record of monitoring and research in the Marine Park. The consortium (coordinated by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre) includes:

With links to:

Monitoring subprograms

What is being monitored?

The Marine Monitoring Program (2004 - 2006) was made up of five key subprograms:

1. River mouth water quality monitoring

Water quality monitoring in river mouths will assess changes over time in concentrations and loads of the major land sourced pollutants (such as sediments, nutrients and pesticides) that have the potential to harm Reef ecosystems. This is important as it provides the best data to determine changes in the discharge of pollutants from the catchment to the Great Barrier Reef. This data will also help to measure the effectiveness of activities being undertaken by communities and governments in the catchment to reduce the transfer of pollutants to the Great Barrier Reef. From 2006, this work is undertaken fully by the Department of Natural Resources and Water.

2. Marine water quality monitoring

Monitoring of marine water quality is required to measure improvements in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef as a result of any reductions in pollutants from the river mouths. Monitoring will include the measurement of nutrients, water turbidity and pesticide concentrations at key inshore Reef sites. Sampling will be done using traditional water sampling techniques, as well as using state of the art sensors with long-term data logging capacity and remote sensing.

3. Marine biological monitoring

Monitoring of the major marine ecosystem types recognised as being most at risk from land-based pollutants (for example, intertidal seagrass beds and inshore coral reefs) is to be carried out to ensure that any change in their status is identified. Biological monitoring will be done using:

Video records of coral and benthic cover
Coral recruitment and community composition assessments
Assessments of the status of intertidal seagrasses.

4. Bioaccumulation monitoring

Past surveys of inshore crabs have shown them to be useful monitoring indicators to measure pesticide concentrations in inshore marine life. Organisms exposed to pollutants often develop subtle cellular differences and may accumulate certain toxicants. Therefore, crabs collected in certain inshore areas of the Marine Park will be used to monitor bioaccumulation of toxicants. This measurement can provide a sensitive, early warning of the presence of pollutants before conventional monitoring techniques can detect them. This work was discontinued in 2006 as an annual program and it is proposed to repeat this work on longer time intervals of perhaps five yearly cycles.

5. Socio-economic monitoring

Socio-economic monitoring assesses the contribution a healthy Reef ecosystem makes to the economic and social welfare of Queensland’s regional communities and Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef is managed as a multi-use Marine Park. Reef-based industries and activities such as tourism and commercial fishing directly contribute about $4.2 billion annually to the Queensland and Australian economies. Declining water quality directly threatens the health and long-term survival of the Great Barrier Reef and therefore the ongoing prosperity of the industries and communities it supports.

The social and economic components of the Marine Monitoring Program reports on three key indicators:

Market values of Great Barrier Reef industries and their inputs to regional economies
Patterns of human use of the Marine Park (non-commercial recreational activities, tourism and commercial fishing)
Community and visitor perceptions of and satisfaction with the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

In 2007 the program was modified to include the addition of a flood plume monitoring component to assess where and at what concentrations key pollutants end up in the Reef lagoon.

Locations

Which areas of the Great Barrier Reef are being monitored?

The Marine Monitoring Program assesses the health of the Marine Park by measuring key ecosystem and water quality indicators at selected inshore Reef locations.

Water quality monitoring is undertaken in selected catchments and a number of inshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef (within 10 km of the coast). Monitoring of seagrass beds and inshore coral reefs will also occur in these areas. By monitoring both water quality and the status of ecosystems, it is expected that the influences of water quality on ecosystem health will be better understood.

Get involved

The GBRMPA has identified many areas of the Marine Monitoring Program as ideal opportunities for hands-on participation by individuals and local community and industry groups. Opportunities for community participation include:

River mouth water quality monitoring

Community members were involved in river mouth monitoring by collecting monthly water samples, deploying pesticide samplers and monitoring flood events. This valuable data is incorporated into the overall Monitoring Program database and will be available to the community. You can contact your regional Natural Resources Management Body or the Department of Natural Resources and Water for more information on programs in your area.

Inshore water quality monitoring

Inshore monitoring involves collecting water samples from jetties and coastal sites. Tourism operators have been engaged to sample at selected island sites and inshore waters.

Seagrass-Watch

Seagrass-Watch is a community based program coordinated by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries that measures the abundance of species of seagrass four times a year. To find out more about how you can be involved, visit www.seagrasswatch.org.au.

Bioaccumulation studies

Community members were involved in bioaccumulation studies by helping to collect mud crabs from specific areas in the region. This program was discontinued in 2006 as an annual program.

For information about how to be involved in a local water quality monitoring programs contact the GBRMPA on (07) 4750 0700 or at our office in your region.

Other Queensland catchment monitoring programs

The Marine Monitoring Program is closely associated with other monitoring programs being conducted in the Great Barrier Reef Catchment. These monitoring programs include regional water quality monitoring being undertaken by Natural Resource Management (NRM) Boards and catchment monitoring coordinated by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water.

For information about regional NRM water quality programs visit www.regionalnrm.qld.gov.au or contact your local NRM group.

For information about state water quality Department of Natural Resources and Water programs visit www.nrm.qld.gov.au