Marine Monitoring Program

agriculture002 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.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has prepared Water Quality Guidelines for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (2009) for maintaining the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef. Marine Monitoring Program reports prepared after 2008 compare the current condition of Great Barrier Reef waters with the guidelines for particular contaminants. Monitoring results show that at certain times and places the guidelines are not being met. Management actions are being taken to address this, including those under the broader Reef Plan.

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 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.

Who is monitoring?

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 the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), University of Queensland, Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Department of Environment and Resource Management.

Monitoring subprograms - what was 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 assesses 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 also helps 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 Environment and Resource Management.

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 includes the measurement of nutrients, water turbidity and pesticide concentrations at key inshore Reef sites. Sampling is 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 carried out to ensure that any change in their status is identified. Biological monitoring is 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 are 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 $5.3 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.

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 Environment and Resource Management 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.