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Marine Monitoring Programme

Monitoring programmes 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 programme (Marine Monitoring Programme) in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon will assess the long-term effectiveness of the Australian and Queensland Government’s Reef Water Quality Protection 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 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 programmes such as the Marine Monitoring Programme.

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 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 Reef Plan 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.

The Reef Plan supports 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.

A key component of the Reef Plan is the implementation of the Marine Monitoring Programme in the Reef lagoon (Strategy I.4) to assess the effectiveness of the Reef Plan in improving water quality.

Reef Water Quality Protection Plan [ Acrobat Format 1402.40KB ]

Who is monitoring?

Who is undertaking the Marine Monitoring Programme

The GBRMPA is responsible for the implementation and reporting of the Marine Monitoring Programme in the inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef. Management of the monitoring programme 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 CRC Reef Research Centre) from 2004 - 2006 included:

Monitoring subprogrammes

What is being monitored?

The Marine Monitoring Programme (from 2004 - 2006) was made up of five key subprogrammes:

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.

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.

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 Programme 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.

Locations

Which areas of the Great Barrier Reef are being monitored?

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

Ten river mouths along the coast of the catchment are monitored. These ten rivers are considered high priority in terms of potential impacts to the Great Barrier Reef. In many cases, sampling has been carried out in these rivers in the past to provide baseline data.

Water quality monitoring is undertaken in the 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 Programme 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 Programme database and will be available to the community.

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 programme 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.

For information about how to be involved in a local water quality monitoring programme contact the community water quality monitoring coordinator at the GBRMPA on (07) 4750 0700.

Other Queensland catchment monitoring programmes

The Marine Monitoring Programme is closely associated with other monitoring programmes being conducted in the Great Barrier Reef Catchment as part of the Reef Plan. These monitoring programmes include regional water quality monitoring being undertaken by Natural Resource Management (NRM) Boards across the six regions listed above and catchment monitoring coordinated by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water.

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

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