17 June 2013 - Federal
Environment Minister Tony Burke today launched
a powerful Reef monitoring program – Eye
on the Reef – that will engage an army of
volunteers to help protect the iconic Great
Barrier Reef.
Mr Burke said the integrated
Eye on the Reef is a free mobile technology
app that allows people to send in real-time
sightings of marine animals while they’re
still out on the Reef and contribute to
its long-term protection.
“The Great Barrier Reef
is an iconic Australian environmental asset
and the Australian Government is absolutely
committed to the protection of the Reef
and our oceans,” Mr Burke said.
“This world-class program
provides an avenue for people to use the
app to report their Reef sightings and observations
to the Australian Government so that we
can build our body of knowledge on this
vast and complex ecosystem.
“Eye on the Reef brings
together five assessment and monitoring
programs that collect valuable information
about reef health, marine animals, and incidents.
“The information we
receive will help us to manage the Great
Barrier Reef at a time when it is under
pressure from the effects of climate change
and other threats.
“These photos, video
recordings and observations feed straight
back to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Authority, providing up-to-date information
on the distribution of marine animals. Users
can also share their sightings with friends
through their Facebook page.”
The app can be downloaded
for free from the App stores (iphone version)
and Google play (android compatible).
Eye on the Reef was
developed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine
Park Authority as a partnership between
government, scientists, the tourism industry,
Marine Park rangers and other Reef users.
The expanded program
brings together one new and four existing
assessment and monitoring programs that
collect valuable information about reef
health, marine animals and incidents.
All of the reports made
through these programs are combined in a
single data management and reporting system,
giving us up-to-date information on the
health of the Reef and the distribution
of protected and iconic species.
It provides snapshots
of what’s happening on the Reef at a single
point in time, comparative trend data over
time, and early warnings of negative impacts
such as crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.
Mr Burke said a key
strength of the program was having a range
of reporting tools to match people with
different circumstances and reef reporting
experience.
“This means there’s
a reporting tool to suit everybody — from
a first-time Reef visitor to an experienced
researcher,” he said.
“Eye on the Reef not
only enables people from all walks of life
to engage in looking after the Great Barrier
Reef, but it helps the Australian Government
to protect the amazing biodiversity and
unique heritage values of this much-loved
international icon.”
Eye on the Reef is made
up of five sub-programs
Tourism Weekly monitoring
— reef tourism operators and crew carry
out weekly observations of sites they visit
regularly. This gives comparative data of
those sites over time. It started in 1997
and was the original Eye on the Reef program.
There are currently 43 tourism operators
surveying 45 regularly visited reef sites
between the Whitsundays and Port Douglas.
Reef Health and Impact
Surveys — created mainly for the Queensland
Parks and Wildlife Service, Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park Authority, champion tourism
staff and researchers. It’s a quick and
efficient way to provide a snapshot of reef
health at any time on any reef. It’s often
used to assess impacts of natural disasters
on the Reef.
The Sightings Network
— an avenue for any reef user to report
the interesting, unusual, weird and wonderful
things they see and experience in the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park. The photos and
observations they send in help us to build
knowledge about species diversity, abundance,
habitat and range. It used to be a paper-based
reporting system, but all sightings are
now made through the new app or online.
Eyes and Ears Incident Reporting — used
by tourism operators and the general public
to report things that aren’t allowed in
the Marine Park, such as littering or fishing
in a green zone. People can report incidents
through the Sightings Network app.
Rapid Monitoring — a new program that enables
tourists and regular reef users to get more
engaged in reef reporting and protection.
It enables people with relatively little
experience to grab an underwater slate and
make observations on core reef health indicators.
+ More
Liberal Party threatens
the future of our oceans
3 June 2013 - The Liberals
today moved to disallow the management plans
for the world's largest network of Marine
Parks, putting our precious oceans at risk.
Environment Minister
Tony Burke said this would undo decades
of conservation work.
"While it's been
20 years since the commencement of the process
that created our ocean's national parks,
the next 24 hours will determine whether
those years meant nothing or whether Australia
establishes the world's most comprehensive
network of national parks in the ocean,"
Mr Burke said.
"The jewel in the
crown is the Coral Sea which backs on to
the Great Barrier Reef to become the largest
marine protected area on the planet.
"Under John Howard,
the Liberal Party supported protecting the
ocean in this way and implemented marine
national parks both in the Great Barrier
Reef and the south east of our oceans as
well as rejecting a super trawler proposal.
"Under Tony Abbott,
the Liberals will say no to anything that
involves protecting the oceans. They will
abolish national parks in the oceans and
invite the super trawler back as soon as
they can.
"This Government
has a proud record of protecting the oceans.
Two futures are now on offer. Tony Abbott's
plan plunders the oceans, ours' protects
them."
The new Commonwealth
marine reserves were only established after
an unprecedented consultation process.
There have been five
rounds of consultation on marine reserves
over the past four year, including more
than 250 public and stakeholder meetings
around the country, attended by about 2,000
people.
More than 1000,000 people
participated in the public consultation
process and provided feedback.
The Government has used
the best available science, talked to the
public over a number of years, made and
revised plans based on community consultation
and delivered the world's most comprehensive
marine reserve network - with only around
a one per cent impact on commercial fisheries.
The places where a majority
of families love to fish won't be impacted
at all by these new marine parks - fishing
from beaches, lagoons and jetties is unchanged.
The vast majority of
the new Commonwealth marine reserves remain
open to recreational fishers. In fact 96
per cent of the Commonwealth waters within
100 kilometres of the coast are still open
to rec fishers.
