Reef Watch Community Education in Action

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Reef WatchCommunity Education in Action
Dr Sue Murray-JonesReef Watch - Liaison Officer
andTechnical Advisor(Office for Coast and
Marine, DEH)
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PREMISEVolunteers can do good science!-
importance of temperate reefs- introduce Reef
Watch - describe methodology- limits and
challenges
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- rocky shores accessible- well studied- lots
of books, kits, material- lots of community
action
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Temperate reefs- subtidal less
accessible- not as well studied- fewer books,
kits, material- few community programs BUT- we
know they are highly productive- key role in
coastal processes- interest from divers- VERY
expensive for researchers to work in subtidal
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The Unique South
- very high biodiversity- extremely high
endemism e.g. 85 of fish 95 of molluscs 90
of echinoderms (estimates from Poore 1991) 30
of Chlorophyta (green algae) 75 of Rhodophyta
(red algae) 57 of Phaeophyta (brown) (Womersley
1991) - more species of algae than the GBR has
corals
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Algal diversity
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Why is this so?
- Current patterns - tropical influences - East
Australian Current - Leeuwin Current -
Antarctic influence- Isolation- Longest E-W
temperate coastline
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Reef Watch- set up to monitor
metro reefs- methodology and training
developed- got community involvement, funding-
raised awareness - events such as Marathon
Dive- participate in Sea Week etc- ID workshops
using scientific experts
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Surveys- visual fish census- quadrat counts-
line intercept transects (LIT)- use of life form
codes
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Life Form Codes
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- 1996 Adelaide University Botany
Department - Reef Health Assessment -
Development of LIT- use transect line, weighted
ruler- record along transect using life form
codes- simple- reproducible- directly
comparable to U Adelaide/ EPA survey data
Line Intercept Transects (LIT)
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LIT
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Successful program - gt80
participants in marathon dives - c. 300 divers
have participated - developed a solid data base -
interactive web site - developing web engine to
generate reports - has been copied by other
states - held up as a model in election policy
statements
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Limits - some data quality problems
(addressing) - resourcing - commitment in
winter! - data is semi-quantitative - need more
spatial cover/replication - need more temporal
replication
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Challenges - funding (always) - need to
find a way to run w/o paid project officer -
insurance!!! - need to extend to less
interesting areas eg seagrass, degraded
reefs, estuaries - time
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Keys to success
- involvement of trained scientists at all
levels, e.g. development, analysis, training,
dives- high quality training and ID workshops-
lots of information eg training manuals, kits-
lifeform codes- progression of skills - basic
fish census, quadrats - graduate to LIT-
liasion with Government, SARDI, Unis
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Where to now?
- expansion of programs - Feral and in Peril-
adopt a reef program . temporal repetition
and ownership- devolving to local areas eg
grants from Marion, Onka councils- expand to
regions- add an intertidal component- Seagrass
Watch- Blue Groper survey- fish biology
workshop
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Acknowledgements- Coastcare now
Fishcare- active steering Committee, past,
present and future- Jon Emmett, Sheralee Cox,
Chris Ball- David Turner and Anthony Cheshire-
SARDI- OCM