Coral Sea Foundation’s Post

A fever of Eagle Rays and a pair of Green Turtles seen active in Nelly Bay this morning during the airborne dawn patrol. Yunbenun, Magnetic Island. #GreatBarrierReef The incredible amount of marine life around this island, part of Wulgurukaba sea country, and its proximity to the regional hub of Townsville and the daily ferry connections via SeaLink Marine & Tourism makes it the perfect location for our Sea Women Great Barrier Reef training programs as we extend the multi-award-winning Sea Women of Melanesia Inc. training model to Indigenous women in Queensland and Zenadth Kes (Torres Straits Islands). coralseafoundation.net Music by Young Jing - Burning Man.

Latest reef survey images from 6 sites of the east coast of Yunbenun (Magnetic Island - Great Barrier Reef) are up on our ReefCloud.Ai Project space and if you'd like to join our ReefCloud volunteer group and help us analyse the imagery, please send a DM or email [email protected] coralseafoundation.net #coralseafoundation #Yunbenun #Magneticisland #coral #coralreef #greatbarrierreef #marinescience #marineconservation #reefsurvey #ReefCloud

Call for Applications – Sea Women Great Barrier Reef Training Program 2024. We are pleased to open a call for applications for the next Sea Women Great Barrier Reef Training Program, which will run over 4 weeks from the Sunday 3rd of November to Saturday 30th November on Wulgurukaba country at Yunbenun, Magnetic Island. This program will provide 8 Indigenous women with the practical training and skills needed to take a lead role in caring for sea country and give them a greater chance of gaining employment in the areas of marine conservation, management, and marine ecotourism. The program will be led by the Coral Sea Foundation marine scientists (both male and female, Indigenous and non-Indigenous) with support from female Indigenous mentors that completed the 2023 program. The Coral Sea Foundation will cover travel, accommodation, food, training and certification costs for each participant over the 4-week program. TRAINING GOALS 🔹 Identify common fish and corals on Yunbenun reefs. 🔹 Perform a reef monitoring survey using underwater camera systems. 🔹 Obtain QLD Marine licence for operating small boats. 🔹 Obtain SSI Open Water Scuba certification. 🔹 Obtain First Aid and Advanced Resuscitation certification. 🔹 Learn to use Google Earth and Garmin GPS systems for navigation and reef surveys. 🔹 Learn to plan a marine expedition and conduct risk assessment. 🔹 Develop Indigenous community engagement and leadership skills. More information about the program is at https://lnkd.in/giTVb3GX Can I apply? ✅ Applications are open to Indigenous women with connections to sea country along the Queensland coast. ✅ Applicants should be passionate about caring for sea country and have a strong interest in learning more about the coral reefs and the tropical marine environment of the inshore Great Barrier Reef. ✅ Applicants should be at least 18 years old, in good health and confident swimmers. ✅ Previous experience with boating, snorkelling and diving would be beneficial, but are not essential. Applications close Monday October 7th. Ready to Apply? Please complete the application form at the following link: https://lnkd.in/grfaiDvJ

This week we checked the coral growth in one of the damselfish farms we monitor around Yunbenun (Magnetic Island) on the inshore Great Barrier Reef. This farm is on the Moltke wreck in Geoffrey Bay, and the corals have almost completely taken over! Territorial damselfishes play an important role on coral reefs, and their algal farms are exceptionally interesting and dynamic places! The Australian Gregory (Stegastes apicalis) is the most common large farming damselfish at Yunbenun (Magnetic Island) and it cultivates a dark reddish algae, as well as facilitating the settlement, growth and survival of juvenile corals in its territory (see video: https://lnkd.in/dz6sSZgS ). We have many Stegastes farms in our long-term monitoring sites around Yunbenun, and this 30 month sequence from a fish territory on the Moltke Wreck at Geoffrey Bay shows how quickly the juvenile corals are growing and how many different coral species are present in the farm. In a nutshell, the fish seem to enhance juvenile coral survivorship and help the corals grow until they are 3-4 years old, at which point the fish starts nipping and killing parts of the coral colony to create a new framework for its algal farm. As the corals in this farm are approaching the 3-year mark, we are expecting the fish to start modifying the corals fairly soon. It raises the question - if we are interested in boosting the settlement, survivorship and growth of juvenile corals, should we be creating damselfish habitat and letting the fish and Mother Nature do the work for us, rather than cultivating and outplanting coral fragments at great expense, many of which do not survive? #tooprecioustolose Coralseafoundation.net #coralseafoundation #Yunbenun #magneticisland #greatbarrierreef #stegastes #damselfish #fishecology #marinescience #marineconservation #biodiversity #reefalive #reefrecovery

Another example of the diverse coral communities found in the Milne Bay province of Papua New Guinea.

Last day of calm weather on the Great Barrier Reef for a while, and we made the most of it! More marine conservation training for our Coral Sea Foundation team and four more reef sites around Yunbenun surveyed and added to our ReefCloud.Ai Project. The abundant marine life and the rates of natural coral growth on these inshore reefs are always impressive, and you'd hardly know that a cyclone rolled through here 7 months ago! The Great Barrier Reef may well be under increasing stress, but one thing is for damn sure - there are thousands of square kilometers of reefs like these in pretty good condition, and that is worth our utmost efforts to manage effectively and look after. #reefalive coralseafoundation.net #coralseafoundation #Yunbenun #magneticisland #greatbarrierreef #coral #coralreef #biodiversity #marineconservation #marinescience #reefcloud #reefsurvey #mangrovejack #greenturtle

Call for Applications – Indigenous Marine Conservation Training Project, Townsville Sector, Great Barrier Reef. The Coral Sea Foundation and the Djulin Marine Aboriginal Corporation (DMAC) are now opening a call for applications for the DMAC Marine Conservation Training Project in 2024-25. We have a mutual interest in empowering Traditional Owners from the Townsville, Ingham and Palm Island regions with the training they need to take a lead role in monitoring and caring for the coral reefs of their sea country, and we have received funding under the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Helping Country Grant program to support this goal. This program will provide four participants (2 male and 2 female) with the practical training and skills needed to take a lead role in caring for sea country and give them a greater chance of gaining employment in the areas of marine conservation, management, and marine ecotourism. The program will take place over 10 weekends between September 2024 and November 2025, and includes active sea training using small boats to access reef sites around Yunbenun (Magnetic Island). The Coral Sea Foundation will cover all program costs for participants (travel, food, training, and certification) and they will also receive a daily stipend for their participation. The program will be led by the Coral Sea Foundation marine scientists (both male and female, Indigenous and non-Indigenous) with support from Wulgurukaba traditional owners. TRAINING GOALS                        🔹 Identify common fish and corals on Yunbenun reefs. 🔹 Perform a reef monitoring survey using the Olympus TG geotagging camera system 🔹 Obtain QLD Marine licence for operating small boats 🔹 Learn to use Google Earth and Garmin GPS systems for navigation and reef surveys 🔹 Learn to plan a marine expedition and conduct risk assessment 🔹 Indigenous community engagement and leadership development Can I apply? ✅ Applications to this program are open to Indigenous people with connections to sea country in the Townsville, Ingham and Palm Island area. ✅ Applicants should be passionate about caring for sea country and have a strong interest in learning more about the coral reefs and the tropical marine environment of the inshore Great Barrier Reef. ✅ Applicants should be at least 18 years old, in good health and confident swimmers. ✅ Previous experience with boating, snorkelling and / or diving would be beneficial, but are not essential. ✅ Applications close Monday 16th September. Ready to Apply? Please complete our online application form at the following link: https://lnkd.in/g33VPqdE

Link: https://lnkd.in/gwt5TZp2?

Love thy neighbour? One interesting aspect of the coral community recovery process on the #greatbarrierreef is that natural patterns of coral larvae settlement are extremely variable between zones on a coral reef. The larvae don't just rain down uniformly over the whole reef, and there are usually some places, especially in the highly productive reef crest habitat, where very high densities of juvenile corals settle in each square meter. You can see examples of this in some of our videos from Jiigurru (Lizard Island) like this one: https://lnkd.in/g9azBQ8f In those high-density settlement areas, fast growing corals begin competing with each other at just 3 years of age, and so counts of species biodiversity peak quite early on in the successional process, and corals quickly move into active competition with each other as you can see in the images here. Coral reefs are one of the most exceedingly complex ecosystems on the planet, changing rapidly through time, and we do not yet have a complete understanding of the natural dynamics in these systems and their cycles of disturbance and recovery, much less how they are coping with an increasing frequency of climate impacts. Much more fundamental research is needed, and we are bemused and somewhat cynical that millions of dollars of funding that could be used for this purpose is now being diverted into ineffectual and cost intensive "reef restoration" projects that have no real capability of restoring a natural coral community at any meaningful spatial scale. Greenwashing much? Check where the funding is coming from 😉 coralseafoundation.net #coral #coralreef #coralseafoundation #marinescience #marineconservation #biodiversity #marineecology

Amazing milestone for the Kimbe Sea Women of Melanesia Inc.!