VNPA Reef Watch; inspiring volunteers

Over the last 12 years Wendy Roberts has been the primary liaison for the Victorian National Parks Association’s Reef Watch program. Although she is moving on she recently reflected on "a wonderful journey, filled with incredible discoveries" by volunteers surveying their local reefs along Victoria's coastline. Wendy has been an inspiration to volunteers wanting to get their hands wet and an invaluable resource for the wider community and we wish her well into the future. 

Some of the accomplishments during her tenure?

• More than 24,000 species records from 126 locations, which, with the assistance of Museum Victoria, being uploaded to the CSIRO’s Atlas of Living Australia database.  
• The successful running of ten Great Victorian Fish Counts involving hundreds of divers across the state that helped build greater awareness of our precious temperate marine species and reef habitats (a report will be completed in 2015).
• The confirmation of the Western Blue Groper in Victorian waters and the ultimate protection of both species.
• Two Victorian Coastal Council Awards for Innovation and Education.
• Successful partnerships with Museum Victoria, Parks Victoria, Port Phillip and Westernport CMA, Coastcare, Melbourne Aquarium and the diving industry, all of which supported and enriched the program immensely.

Is it time for you to join in the fun and discovery of citizen science in your neighbourhood? There are many volunteer programs that make an incredible difference to our body of knowledge and Reef Watch is one of them.

Reef Watch Victoria   http://www.reefwatchvic.asn.au/Home.htm

Reef Watch is also active in South Australia   http://www.conservationsa.org.au/reefwatch-home.html

www.ausmepa.org.au

Great Victorian Fish Count 2013

Victoria's Reef Watch and VNPA are hosting another community monitoring event to see how the fish are going in the south east. Here's your invitation.

Saturday Nov 23 to Sunday Dec 8 Grab your fins, wipe your snorkel, take a deep breath and start your count down. The VNPA's Great Victorian Fish Count 2013 is nearly here. Last year more than 350 divers and snorkellers from 25 groups throughout Victoria made the Fish Count a fabulous success -- help us make 2013 the biggest event yet! The Fish Count is a fabulous way to explore Victoria's beautiful sea and a practical way to make our oceans healthier and happier places for our unique marine plants and animals to live.

> Fact sheet > Reef Watch > Watch video > Fish Count manual > Fish Count ID guide

We'll post details soon on how to get involved, but until then if you have any questions please contact Wendy Roberts on (03) 8341 7446 or email wrobert@museum.vic.gov.au.

We look forward to seeing you beside the seaside.

Divers taking part in the Great Victorian Fish Count monitor reefs all along our coastline.

www.ausmepa.org.au

Golden opportunity for Gold Coast reefs

MEDIA RELEASE OCTOBER 14, 2011    
www.reefcheckaustralia.org 1


Volunteer reef health monitoring organisation, Reef Check Australia, has kicked off their monitoring survey season in South East Queensland with support from locally-based AirAsia! Reef Check volunteer divers jumped in at Palm Beach Reef and Narrowneck artificial reef this week as the first official dives of the 2011 survey season.


“It’s amazing to dive with such vibrant and diverse marine life and then surface to see the bustling city skyline along the coast,” says, Reef Check Australia’s General Manager, Jennifer Loder. “In half a day we saw breaching whales, dozens of colourful nudibranchs, resting wobbegongs and a multitude of fish. Reef Check programs can help to ensure that there are healthy reef & ocean habitats to support such amazing marine life.”


Over the next several months, Reef Check survey teams will visit reef sites stretching from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast, monitoring reef composition, recording abundance of key fish and invertebrates and documenting reef impacts such as bleaching, coral disease or marine debris. Reef Check’s globally-standardised scientific protocols are currently implemented in more than 90 locations around the world, establishing a unique opportunity to compare reef health around the world.


All Reef Check Australia data is available, free-of-charge, to members of the public who want to learn more about their favourite local reefs via the Reef Check Australia Reef Health Database. Data is also provided to government agencies, natural resource managers and industry to assist in reef management efforts, helping to compliment government monitoring efforts and fill gaps in reef health monitoring data.


More than a dozen local dive operators support Reef Check’s monitoring efforts by providing dive trips to monitoring sites around the South East Queensland area at reduced rates. Local businesses, such as AirAsia, are now showing their support for the community-based initiative through Reef Check Australia’s Adopt a Reef program. “Queensland's Gold Coast was the very first destination of AirAsia's long haul carrier AirAsia X, it is a community we have always had a strong affinity with and we feel it only fitting to further extend our support of the Gold Coast community beyond its shoreline to its local marine wildlife as well,” says Stuart Myerscough, AirAsia’s Marketing Manager.


Jennifer Loder adds, “Reef Check Australia is striving to build awareness, appreciation and protection of rocky reefs, like Palm Beach Reef, right here on our doorstep in SEQ; they really are pretty special. Local partnerships are essential to the success of our program, so we’re grateful that AirAsia is supporting these efforts as our first Adopt a Reef Corporate Giving Program sponsor.”


Find out more about getting involved in a volunteer training course, the Adopt a Reef program or other ways to protect reef and ocean habitats, visit www.reefcheckaustralia.org.
For additional information and high resolution images, contact:
Jennifer Loder, General Manager at jenn@reefcheckaustralia.org or 0402284681.


www.ausmepa.org.au

CORAL REEFS AND CLIMATE CHANGE - a new Australian Education and Action book

CORAL REEFS AND CLIMATE CHANGE published by CoralWatch and the University of Queensland is a guide for education and awareness. It is a collaboration between educators and researchers explaining the science, issues and remedies. It provides tools for understanding the complex dynamics that shape our living reefs.

A CD comes with the book that incorporates both field activities and guided research projects to assist everyone who is interested in taking a closer look. The Coral Health Chart is a flexible tool that allows contribution to a global reef database possible.

To find out more about this new resource please visit CoralWatch or click here.

To access more free Coral Bleaching and Climate Change online education materials visit the AUSMEPA website:  http://www.ausmepa.org.au/effects-of-climate-change-on-coral-bleaching/

Is the climate changing? Watch for yourselves -- ClimateWatch

The first project of its kind in the southern hemisphere, ClimateWatch allows the community at large to get hands-on in the science of understanding climate change through simple observation of the world around them.

ClimateWatch is a monitoring program being opened up to Australians so that they can be involved in collecting and recording data to help shape the country’s scientific response to climate change.

There is an urgent need for large scale data harvesting to evaluate how natural systems are responding to climate change. There are 2 marine species nominated. The photos are taken from the website to illustrate.

One of those is the Blue Mosaic jelly or Blue Blubber,Catostylus mosaicus (above).The other is the Blue Bottle Jellyfish, Physalia utriculus, a siphonophore. Personally I can't think of a better excuse to go for a walk than to assist in this project. How easy is that? If you see either of these animals make a note and record it on the website. You will find that you educate yourself as you contribute and communicate. Find out more about the project...

www.climatewatch.org.au/about/what_is_cw.aspx

NOTE: ClimateWatch was developed by Earthwatch Australia, with the support of the Bureau of Meteorology, Land and Water Australia, The University of Melbourne, corporate and government partners, and scientific collaborators.

Giant Cuttlefish

Why do the big cuttles like South Australia so much? For more info have a look at this Catalyst article.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2695601.htm

The narration begins..."At first glance, this rocky coastline in South Australia doesn’t look all that special. Fringed by gas refineries, lead smelters, and steel works, it’s more industrial landscape than pristine wilderness. Perched at the top of the Spencer Gulf, even its name - Point Lowly - doesn’t hold much promise.But in the eyes of the giant Australian cuttlefish, there is nowhere else on the planet to be."

Victorian Marine Park friends group helps Jawbone and Point Cooke

Marine Care Ricketts Point is a Victorian marine sanctuary friends group in Australia. It has not only taken on real stewardship of the local marine park they have also been lending a hand to establish community friends groups for two other wet parks within Port Phillip Bay.

It won't be long before their Marine Education Centre opens at Ricketts Point for school groups and public education. This new Centre compliments their efforts in science based community monitoring of the sanctuary. The surveys are clearly demonstrating real progress towards increased health of this highly used urban marine sanctuary.

Check them out at http://www.marinecare.org.au/