Wednesday 9 November 2005

Bundaberg residents are helping protect the Great Barrier Reef by collecting water samples as part of an innovative water quality monitoring programme.

The samples will be tested for land-based pollutants, under the programme run by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

GBRMPA Community Monitoring Coordinator Deb Bass praised community participation in the long-term water monitoring project.

“We are pleased the Bundaberg community are taking a hands-on approach to helping determine what affects our waterways and seas,” she said.

“This community project in Bundaberg involves taking monthly water samples from the Burnett River and coastal sites to monitor long-term changes in nutrient and sediment concentrations.

“State-of-the-art samplers were also set up above the water treatment plant intake to monitor concentrations of pesticides and herbicides.”

She said it was part of a wider programme aimed at reversing the decline of water quality entering Great Barrier Reef waters over the next 10 years.

“The overall programme monitors changes in water quality at ten major river mouths along the coast of Queensland and at offshore locations in the Marine Park,” she said.

GBRMPA and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) staff trained Bundaberg City Council staff and Burnett Mary Regional Group and Woongarra Marine Park coordinators in water sampling procedures.

Volunteers from the Woongarra Marine Park Monitoring and Education Project are assisting by taking water samples along the coast, south of the Burnett River mouth.

Crew from Lady Musgrave Barrier Reef Cruises are also helping by taking sea water samples en-route to Lady Musgrave Island.

The monitoring programme is coordinated by GBRMPA, in conjunction with the Reef Cooperative Research Centre, Australian Institute of Marine Science and University of Queensland.

It is part of a large-scale cooperative monitoring programme outlined in the Reef Protection Plan. The plan involves local, state and federal governments, industry and landholders.