Tourism helps reinvigorate the Great Barrier Reef
After all the conversation about destruction to the Great Barrier Reef over the past 12 months, it feels great to end this year with some good news.
Thanks to some awesome tour operators in Queensland, live coral fragments have been successfully collected and installed in the first offshore coral nursery being trialled on the Great Barrier Reef in a bid to regenerate damaged areas of the world’s largest reef.
The Reef Restoration Foundation has a permit from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) to establish a pilot research offshore coral nursery at Fitzroy Island, near Cairns in Tropical North Queensland.
Foundation Chief Executive Officer Stewart Christie said the not-for-profit social enterprise sought and obtained significant tourism industry and scientific support for the coral gardening and restoration research project, which will regenerate degraded coral reefs.
“This week we collected small amounts of healthy coral which, having survived the past two years of high temperatures, should be naturally more resilient to coral bleaching,” he said.
“This coral has been attached to six ‘coral tree’ frames in the offshore coral nursery at Fitzroy Island.”
Corals in offshore nurseries grow much faster, allowing cuttings to be taken just six to 12 months later to be attached on reefs to grow new coral and regenerate damaged sections.
James Cook University Professor Damien Burrows said: “As coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef continues to decline, additional management approaches are required to assist the recovery of corals.”
Led by the Reef Restoration Foundation, the project has strong tourism industry support with funding from Fitzroy Island Resort, Cairns Dive Centre, the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO) and Gempearl.
Researchers from James Cook University’s TropWATER and Reef Ecologic will be monitoring the performance of the coral nursery with support by volunteers from the Fitzroy Island Resort, Cairns
Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, Cairns Dive Centre and other skilled individuals.
Christie said the process adopted by Reef Restoration Foundation had been proven in other locations around the world including the Caribbean and Florida Keys.
GBRMPA Chairman Russell Reichelt said there had been major climate change-driven impacts on the Great Barrier Reef over the past two years.
“GBRMPA’s Reef Blueprint launched this week highlights the importance of innovative approaches and new technologies to manage the Reef,” he said.
“It’s great to see this trial underway — while it’s still early days in this project, we look forward to seeing the results.”
Fitzroy Island Resort Director Doug Gamble said it was critical to invest in projects to support the natural assets that local industry and the community relied upon.
“Investing in the offshore coral nursery is a tangible action that will make a positive difference to reefs and contribute to a better-quality experience for our guests.”
Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO) Executive Officer and Gempearl Director Col McKenzie said the innovative program would engage tourism operators, Reef visitors, and individuals and businesses with a connection to the Reef showing that small actions could create a big impact for the Reef’s future.
Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef CEO Andy Ridley said: “Projects like this are vital as we need to work together to undertake actions at a local, reef-wide and global scale that make a positive difference to ensuring the future health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef”.
Follow Reef Restoration Foundation on its journey here and if you are inspired to make a positive improvement to the health of the Great Barrier Reef, please sign-up or donate here.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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Acropora is not a reef building coral they are more like decorative specie. In the Florida Keys most all of the Acropora on the reef and in the nurseries was taken out by hurricane Irma last season. There are coral reefs on the south side of Cuba in shallow water that are in pristine condition. This suggests that bleaching and coral diseases are triggered by warmer than average water reacting to pollution in the water (Cuba cannot afford fertilizers and pesticides). Reduce land based pollution and the coral will recover naturally. These feel good projects often do more harm than good in the long run by giving false hope. Ideas such as putting cooling fans in the water near a reef to bring up the cooler/deeper water will backfire when the promoters realize they are pumping up nutrient laden waters from the deep. Coral needs clean, clear and nutrient free water in which to thrive. reefreliefarchive.org