The first week of the project has beeen an exciting one for the scientists from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). They have been working with the University of Queensland and CSIRO scientists to set up a program to provide information about coral bleaching from space. This has been the first time that GBRMPA scientists have worked with satellite technology on their coral bleaching surveys. This technique is very useful for getting a broad picture of bleaching patterns on the reef. This information then needs to be further enhanced and understood through in-water surveys (diving on the reef).
The scientists will use a rapid assessment survey to record what they see on the reef. Download pdf of survey.
For more info on the monitoring process download the proposed 2006 field plan. Great Barrier Reef Coral Bleaching Response Plan.
Come aboard the Sea Classroom to find out what the people on Pelican1 are doing and learning. We will be updating the site daily during the five weeks of the coral Bleaching project. The scientists will be posting a log of their work, sharing the knowledge they gain about the Reef and answering YOUR questions. There will be diaries of everyone on board to read and respond to.
"The Great Barrier Reef is listed as World Heritage for its cultural as well as its natural sites. Coastal places have stories to tell for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The World Heritage area includes Aboriginal middens and mythic sites, as well as historical shipwrecks and ruins of early European settlement. In so many different ways, reefs have become constructs of human imagination, hopes and fears. Sea places have stories to tell, of how other worlds connect to this world, of how this place came into being. The stories of coastal Aboriginal people are tales of sea creatures and their journeyings, stories that connect past mythic events with present coastal land and reefscapes. Here a spirit ancestor chased a whale or a dugong, there it lay down to rest, and if you look with the eyes of faith, if you see its shape in rock and its breath in the spray of the waves, the reef shimmers with mystic significance."
Rosaleen Love, Monash University in Melbourne talking about her book called "Reefscape. Reflections on the Great Barrier Reef". Interview with Rosaleen.