Community Commitment to Reef Restoration

Over the last few months we've been trying to develop a system whereby more of the local Whitsundays community can get involved in the reef restoration activities we are conducting around the islands. To this end we ran a really interactive and practically focused workshop at the Coral Sea Marina in Airlie Beach as part of Reef Ecologic's Reef Resilience Project. We spent the day going through different methods and techniques implemented in reef restoration and participating in some practical simulations as part of the workshop.

One of the cool things about the workshop was that it was a full day event and we had lots of time to talk about the details and the nuances of active in water reef restoration. we've been trying to develop simple, easy to implement skills with uncomplicated equipment to enable everyone to be involved, no matter the skills that they have.

I asked people what their motivations were for participating in this particular event. I'm currently completing a PhD looking at the way people participate in citizen science and reef restoration activities to see whether there might be better ways to try an inspire people to care about their environment and Implement changes in their own lives to make a difference. Participants themselves shared their desire to learn more about restoration techniques to increase their own knowledge and awareness to enhance the sustainability of the Whitsundays. Those people working in the tourism industry were keen to be able to share this knowledge with their guests and visitors to the region.

Over the course of the last year have trialed and tested a number of different approaches. We used different types of ropes in our oak nurseries in an attempt to be more sustainable. Trialing biodegradable ropes was generally unsuccessful but it's something that we've trialled now and we know that doesn't work. Other things that we've tried is using cement discs to try and raise some of the coral's out of the settlement which has been really successful, however some of the adhesives were used we're not ideal but now we feel like we've developed a system that is going to be much more successful going forward.

At the workshop participants got the opportunity to learn different knots and how to set up rigging systems for coral nurseries. They practised different ways to propagate corals on both rope nurseries and using cement discs. We also provided training and guidance on how to effectively outplant corals onto the natural reef. This is a really important step because from research we know that coral usually grow really well on nurseries, but the big challenge is transferring these healthy corals to the natural reef and having them become a thriving part of the coral reef community going forward.

The workshop resulted in some very enthusiastic stewards who are no doubt looking forward to the next step when we go out to the reef and put some of these newly found skills into practise.

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