Volunteers take a dive for Reef Watch

Hundreds of volunteer underwater enthusiasts are recording their experiences as part of a program to raise community awareness about Victoria's unique marine environment.

Reef Watch was developed by the Australian Marine Conservation Society and the Marine and Coastal Community Network to encourage scuba divers and snorkellers to carry out surveys on marine life at their favourite underwater sites.

Collected information contributes to a greater understanding of the animals and plants of the cool waters off southern Australia, most of which are found nowhere else on earth.

Funding

Over the past six years the project has received almost $200,000 from Coast Action/Coastcare, a joint Australian and Victorian Government program. Reef Watch is also supported by Museum Victoria and the Victorian National Parks Association.

Activities and achievements

The funding employs a coordinator and delivers volunteer resources including monitoring kits with species identification sheets. Seminars are also held at the Melbourne Aquarium to further volunteer knowledge about Victorian marine plants and animals.

There are now 250 volunteers monitoring 65 sites along the coast from Discovery Bay in the west to Cape Conran in east Gippsland. So far 500 underwater surveys have been completed with important information on the location, number and life cycle of many marine animals and plants.

Data is submitted online, and validated by experts before being added to an online database that can be accessed by environmental groups, marine and coastal managers and educational institutions.

Reef Watch Coordinator Wendy Roberts said that from time to time volunteers submitted photos or information on previously unknown or introduced species.

"One of our Reef Watchers spotted a Nudibranch off the Blairgowrie Pier that she wasn't able to identify. We sought advice from Museum Victoria and discovered it was an introduced species from the east coast of South America," Wendy said.

Other volunteers have contributed more than 1500 photos for a new Nudibranch and Flatworm atlas for Museum Victoria, which uses colour images of the animals in their natural habitats.

Data collected by volunteers is useful to community groups such as schools. Students from Williamstown High School, which has a strong marine science curriculum, were thrilled recently when Reef Watch provided them with a list of species from the Jawbone Marine Sanctuary.

With support from the Australian Government, in 2005 Reef Watch carried out its first Great Victorian Fish Count during Coastcare Week in December.

More information

• Wendy Roberts, Reef Watch Coordinator: (03) 8341 7446 or wrobert@museum.vic.gov.au
• Reef Watch website: www.reefwatchvic.asn.au
• Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority website: www.ppwcma.vic.gov.au
• Museum Victoria website: www.museum.vic.gov.au
• Victorian National Parks Association website: www.vnpa.org.au

Australian Government NRM Team
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
1800 552 008 (toll-free)

DEWHA  | DAFF  | australia.gov.au  | NAP  | NHT 
Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative jointly administered by the Australian Government departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts