A flotilla of tourist boats, fishing vessels and superyachts is conducting a world-first census of the Great Barrier Reef.

Conservation group Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef has recruited more than 30 vessels to help survey up to 150 ecologically significant reefs, from the tip of Queensland down to Lady Elliot Island, over the next 10 weeks.

Chief executive Andy Ridley said a “sharing economy” approach was the only way to obtain a big-picture snapshot of the health of the reef.

“If you wanted to survey the reef you’d need a billion-dollar research fleet and this is a way of creating one out of the sum of all the parts,” he said.

“It’s using every available asset that we can get our hands on — every tourism boat, every dive boat, every liveaboard, superyacht, white boat, research vessel, and island operation.”

Snorkellers and recreational divers can carry out the surveys, which involve swimming along a reef and taking a photograph every 10 metres.

University of Queensland marine ecology professor Peter Mumby, who helped devise the survey, said it was aimed at identifying “priority reefs” that were key sources of coral larvae.

“What we need is to find where are the reefs that are most important in driving recovery today,” he said.

Key points:

• A diverse range of boats are gathering reconnaissance data on the health of the Great Barrier Reef
• The surveys can be carried out by snorkellers and recreational divers
• The images will be uploaded online for citizen scientists around the world to help analyse

Source
ABC Far North