Save Scott Reef Update

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hey there! Before we dive in, just a quick favor to ask. If you're enjoying the show, don't be selfish. Please take a moment to rate and review it wherever you're listening. It helps more people find us in the big blue ocean of podcasts. You can also support us by hitting that follow or subscribe button, following us on Instagram at Word on the Race Podcast, and sharing the podcast link with a friend who might love it too. And if you'd like to help keep us afloat, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $5 a month over at patreon.com slash word on the race podcast. You'll get a shout-out on the show, and your support helps cover the behind-the-scenes costs like hosting, editing software, and more. Thanks so much. Now let's get into today's episode. You're listening to Word on the Reef, diving into marine science on the Great Barrier Reef and beyond. I'm your host, diver and marine conservationist Tanya Murphy. And joining me, as always, is Cairns Aquarium's marine educator and fish whisperer, Brett Goodman.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Good morning, Tanya. We're back.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Now, before we dive into today's interview, we've got an important bit of reef news and a chance for every one of our listeners to make a real difference on climate change. Yes. For the first time in eight years, the Australian government has opened public consultation on the proposed Browse Gas Project. Now, our longtime listeners might remember that back in season two, episode 28, that's last year, we took a deep dive into the campaign to save Scott Reef. Located off the coast of Western Australia, Scot Reef is one of Australia's most spectacular and biodiverse coral reef districts. It's home to pygmy blue whales, green sea turtles, dusty sea snakes, sharks, dolphins, and an extraordinary diversity of marine life food. But fossil fuel giant Woodside wants to drill up to 50 gas wells around Scot Reef. Not only would this pose direct risks to marine wildlife, it would also supply gas to the proposed Birat hub, a massive fossil fuel development expected to generate more than 1 billion tons of climate pollution over its lifetime. And those emissions won't just affect Scotrage. The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned the Federal Environment Minister Mari Watt that the climate pollution from Brown could contribute to the loss of nearly 30 million coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef during every future mass bleaching event. Thanks to ACF's advocacy, those climate impacts must now be considered as part of the environmental assessment of the Browse project, triggering a new round of public consultation. That means we've got a rare opportunity to have our say about how those climate emissions will impact the reef and all of us.org.au. Or follow the link in our show notes if you're listening to this on the online podcast. Every submission helps send a clear message that this climate wrecking gas project is too great a risk for Scott Reef, the Great Barry Reef, and our climate.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yep. Get on there and sign up, people.

Introducing Diana Kleine and Some Fan Mail

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Now Brett, today's episode is all about Coral Watch. I love it. A brilliant citizen science project from the University of Queensland that's proving you don't need to be a marine scientist to contribute to real reef research. No, you don't. Anyone anywhere in the world can take part. If you've got access to get to a coral reef, a snorkel mask, and a free Coral Watch starter kit that you can order from their website, you can collect valuable data on coral health that's used by scientists around the globe. Coral Watch has been running since 2002, making it the world's longest-running do-it-yourself coral reef citizen science project. Thousands of volunteers have taken part. But how exactly does it work? And after more than two decades of monitoring reefs, what has it taught us about the health of corals in a warming world? To unpack these questions, joining us today is Coral Watch project manager Diana Klein. Diana leads Coral Watch's global education monitoring and outreach programs, helping people from all walks of life to understand coral reefs and become active participants in reef science. With a background in teaching and science communication, Deanna is also co-author of the book Coral Reefs and Climate Change and helped develop Coral Watch's What Can I Do Climate Action Project, which empowers young people and their families to take meaningful action for the future of coral reefs. Good morning, Diana, and welcome to Word on the Reef. Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Morning, Deanna. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Thank you. Yeah, it's great to have you on the show. I understand you're on Stradbroke Island today, is that right? That's very lucky for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Have a go at you.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Yes. It's amazing here.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

We have listeners across the world, especially in our online podcast. So for anyone who's not familiar, where is Stradbroke Island and what's it like?

SPEAKER_04 6:06

So Stradbrook Island, I'm on North Stradbrook Island, also called Mandiraba. And it's uh just in front of Brisbane. It's a beautiful sand island and there's a lot of wildlife. You can do beautiful walks, lots of beaches and diving as well. I went diving on uh Tuesday and I saw a wheel in the water. Oh whale.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, that's the highway at the moment, isn't it? They're everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Yeah. If you sit you don't have to go out on a boat here, you just sit at point lookout on the headland and you can easily in half an hour spot Twinny Wells. Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Wow, so add that to the bucket list, even though we are in Australia. There's also much in Australia that I still haven't seen. So it's a big place. Stratty, as Australians affectionately call it, is going on the list. Back in our bucket. It's pretty full. Our bucket overfloweth. It is. So uh definitely Diana, can you tell us a bit about your origins and how you first discovered your love for the ocean?

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Yeah, so I'm from the Netherlands, Europe, and I learned to dive in cold, murky, dark ten meters in dark water. And yeah, that's where I learned to dive. And I actually did my first dive in Egypt, like a discover scuba. So that's when I really fell in love and then learned proper diving in the Netherlands and did lots of dives there, but moved I became a dive instructor and moved to Jamaica together with my husband Chris. And yeah, we were there for a year and then we traveled in Asia and worked at all different places as dive instructors. And after that we moved to Australia where I started working at the University of Queensland with marine scientists, more in the space of science communication, and learned lots more about marine science, and I'm out there all the time.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Wow. So are you uh someone who came to marine science but not from a like a research background?

SPEAKER_04 8:26

No, my background is in art, basically. So art and graphic design, and that's how I started doing science communication and just learned by doing.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Wow, well technically coral is art, isn't it? It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Oh yes, it is.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

That's really inspiring. And I had some really great feedback from a listener just the other day. I want to give a shout out to Aubrey Anne from Portland, Oregon, USA. One of our listeners, she wrote to us about how the show had inspired her to pursue her diving course and to come and visit the Great Barrier Reef and to get into her diving career. And so she said she had always thought that she wouldn't be able to get into marine science or marine conservation. But then she said by listening to our show and hearing all of the different people we interviewed, she realized that there's many avenues to get into protecting the ocean, whether it's through ecotourism or you know the arts, communication, there's so many different ways to get in. So you're another example of that, and there's so many. And so I just want to give a shout out and a big thank you to Aubrey and Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, thank you. Um that's why we do what we do, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Absolutely. I was so heartwarmed to hear someone another person, because it's not the first person who's written to us something like that that it's changed their life to hear about all these things. It changed our life. Me and Brett, you know, we actually also don't come from a research uh background in marine science, but we come from communication, ecotourism, and just a general absolute passion and connection with the ocean. So anyone out there, it's never too late to get involved.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Um I think passion is the key. I think that's where it all starts. If you're passionate about something and you want to protect, then you find your way and start within the citizen science and of course you always need a little bit of luck as well, and find the right people at the right place and get the opportunities, but it's also looking for opportunities and yeah, there are many out there. And I do consider myself very lucky to be in this position and being able to teach lots of people about the wonderful world of coral reefs and what we can do to help protect. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah, it's an absolute privilege. We're very lucky, all of us who are involved in this.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, absolutely. Every day that I stand in front of customers and teach them about it, which I've been doing for nearly eight and a half years at work, it's just a privilege. Never gets old, does it? Never. Just love it.

What Does Coral Colour Tell Us?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Okay, so the coral watch method of surveying coral health is all about changes in coral colour. So now most of our long-term listeners do have a basic understanding of coral and coral bleaching because we've talked about it on many of our previous shows. But just for a recap, or any new listeners, Diana, can you please give us a simple explanation of how coral gets its colour and what can cause those colours to change?

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Yeah, for sure. So corals are animals and they live together with a little plant. It's a tiny algae, it's called Susantelli.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Susantelli Yeah, it's a fun word. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

And it has a symbiotic relationship. So the algae basically provides food for the coral and also colour, because the algae has different species and different colours. And that's how corals get that colour. And the coral provides a nice home for this algae. But when the environmental conditions change and the water gets too warm, the algae actually gets stressed and the coral kicks out the algae, and because of that the coral loses its color. So on that stage, when this symbiotic algae, the sous and has disappeared, the coral is still alive, but the tissue is now transparent, and you basically look straight at the coral skeleton, which is white, and that's what we call coral bleaching.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Yeah. When you talk to customers that come to the aquarium, how many of them do you think already know what coral bleaching is?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Probably probably 0.01%. But this is always such an amazing thing for us at work, is when we explain it in simple terms to the people how coral grows and how climate change and temperature affects it, then they have a lot better understanding going forward. I mean, people come up to me and say, Oh, climate change is a hoax and it's not happening. I just ask them how coral grows, and they can't tell me. You can't understand one without the other. It's a cool little relationship between Zoe and old Paul, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, Paul the Polyp.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Paul the Polyp. Oh, sorry, he's a roommate. Polly the Polyp. Yep. And Zoe the Suzanne Belle, the housemates that live together. The old Zoe.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Zoe is the brings in the food.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

And uh Polly provides the house to live in. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Builds his little skeleton for how to poop.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

Yeah. And Zoe has nice colours.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

She does. Zoe is the colourful home decorator. Yep. And when they break up and they split up. Oh, it's very sad. Which always happens when it gets too hot.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Too hot to handle in the house. Zoe leaves, Zoe packs up her colourful clothing and leaves, and uh Polly slash Paul is left colourless.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Wondering what he's done wrong and hoping an air conditioner turns up when she comes back.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah, well, unfortunately, Polyopolyp hasn't done anything wrong. It's things that humans are doing actually causing this split. So Diana, is coral bleaching something that happens overnight, or is it more like watching the colour slowly drain out through fifty shades of brown over days or weeks?

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Well, it depends. So what we just talked about the stress because of warm sea temperatures. That is something that is quite a slow process. But corals can actually also respond to other stresses. They can even respond to cold water. Or they can also respond to a change in salinity when you get on the reflat a lot of rain. Then corals can also get stressed. But those are local stresses. What we talk about, the link with climate change is really the warm seawater temperatures that are increasing and are impacting coral bleaching year by year almost now. And that doesn't happen overnight. That is quite a slow process. It depends though. Some species respond quicker than others. Not all corals are the same. But in general, often it takes about three, four weeks where you can see this process. But again, there's no one rule for this. You know, sometimes there is also a very quick increase in water temperature, or sometimes it's more a slow process. But yeah, what we often see is all this bleaching gets predicted by NOAA in the States, and so we actually know it's most likely also going to happen this year again or the GBR. And uh so we start already monitoring the reef well before, so we can follow the process and keep on learning more about the coral bleaching as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Now

The Coral Health Chart

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Diana, let's talk about Coral Watch. It was the world's first do-it-yourself coral survey project. So, how did it first get started?

SPEAKER_04 16:12

So the core health chart, that's the scientific tool that we use, was developed in 2002 on Heron Island by scientist Uli Sebak, Justin Marshall and O. V. Gilbert. And it was really a response to the severe bleaching event that happened in 2002. And at that stage it was all still fairly new, the whole idea about coral bleaching, and we didn't know much about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah, the the first mass bleaching was in 1998, I believe.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Yeah, and then 2002, and then not till 2016. So the scientists really felt there are so many coral reefs, there are actually so little scientists, so few scientists. We need help. So if we can develop a tool that is simple to use and can be used by anyone, um, because it is a simple method, then we can cover much more ground, we can get much more data, we can get much more people involved, and people will know more about it. So that's really how it started as a citizen science project.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Brett and I have our Coral Watch slates in front of us. Yes, we do. But for the listeners who can't see, can you describe what it is and how it works?

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Yeah. So just think about the little paint charts you can get in the shop if you want to colour your wall.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah, the Bunnings paint shop area with all the different paint colour guides.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Yeah. So this is just a little plastic chart that can get wet, so you can take it underwater. It's 15 by 15 centimetres, and it has four different sites that show the most common colours on the reef. So it's just a paint chart. That's how it looks. It's just square boxes with different colours. And it's very simple. You just hold the chart next to the coral that you want to monitor, and you match the colour, and you find the lightest and the darkest colour on the chart. And that's what you write down on a little slate that comes with the colour health chart.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

So they're all numbered like B1, B2 in terms of the colours. Interesting to note that you didn't go with the paint shot method and call it midnight blue and like Zoe purple. Yeah, sunset pink.

SPEAKER_04 18:38

Yeah, it's just numbered one to six on each side. And the one is a white and the six is a dark colour. And it's all about the number of Susantelli, the symbiotic algae, that is present in the coral. So if it's a six, the coral has a nice healthy dark colour, and it means there's lots of algae in the coral. So it has lots of food and it's very healthy. But when the coral starts to bleach, we can see this process. We can see the change. Like maybe in two weeks from a six it moved to a four. And in another two weeks it might be a two. And that's exactly what the coral health chart does. So it really just looks like a colour chart with colours and just mix and match the different sites and it's super easy.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

They must have done a lot of work to figure out which colours to choose because it's like you said, one to six. One is white, six is very deep coloured, but they're in uh four main groups. A no, there's no A, but there's B, C, D, and E. So B is different shades of green. And then C is different shades of sort of a reddish, pinkish brown. And then D is beige to dark brown. And then E is olive, like light olive to deep olive green. So what this tells me, you said that the scientists found that these are the most common colours on the reef. So this is what I'm always trying to explain to the visitors if they have a misconception that all corals should be bright purple and bright bright rainbow colours. This chart shows us the most common colours on the reef are actually brown, beige, olive, and reddish maroni brown.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

Yeah, so those are the most natural colours. And also when you're colour blind, you can use the core health chart. What? Because what we look at is the density of colour. So the different sites of the chart actually just help you match, but the sights are the same in density of colour. So we're looking at the U and the brightness of a colour. So you can basically if you would photocopy in a grayscale, all the sights are the same. It's just easier to match a colour. And there's two colours that you can't really measure, and that's blue and purple. And that's because these corals, they also have pigments. And when they bleach, they might still be blue. We don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

So if the colour is not on the chart, you can't measure that coral and you just pick another one.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, so the coral polyp, which builds a coral, is a Nidarian, which is related to the jellyfish. Yep. Mostly clear or transparent and colourless. That's why they need the zoosanthelae to give them their deep colours. But if you think about jellyfish, sometimes you see jellyfish that have a slight pinkish tinge or a slight bluish purple tinge. So polyps, some species are also able to produce these pinkish or purplish pigments, as well as the sort of browny and olive y colours that the zoosanthella are bringing to the party. So sometimes it's actually the in some species it's the polyps themselves that are generating these bright colours, which becomes confusing when you see corals that are bleached and they can actually look really like pastel blue or bright fluorescent pink, but fluorescent coral is actually bleached coral because the deeper earthy tones of the zoanthelae have been ejected from the coral, and now all you're seeing is the polyp pigments, which are the bright sort of pastel or fluorescent colours. So it's very coral colour can be a bit of a confusing thing to newcomers.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

That's one of the biggest things out there is people come back and they go, Oh, the roof looks incredible, it's not bleaching, it's all these beautiful fluorescent colours, and you're like, oh sorry to tell you. Have you got ten minutes? Let me just uh have a chat to you about this, all right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

I think because you know how aquariums always have UV lights as well, because when you shine black lights, like disco UV, on many corals, they do actually fluoresce and shine bright U colours. And so if people are used to seeing that in aquariums, then they think that's normal. But if you're out in the ocean, there's no black lights, there's no UV special disco lights, the corals should not be fluorescent colours.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

So it's no trickery rose filters in front of camera lenses or strobes and stuff. No.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

No, they should be earthy tones as shown on the coral watch.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

I really I really like the fact that this can be used for colour blind like colour blind people don't miss out either, because that's pretty cool, isn't it? Because it's just about the darkness of it rather than the actual colour itself.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah. Is it even possible for people who don't swim to use it, maybe by sort of walking along the beach or something? I suppose you have to get quite close to see the colours.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

Yeah. In some places you can reef walk, which is I would rather call it sand walk.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Sand walk, yeah. Don't don't step on the corals, folks.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

No, don't step on the corals, but walk around the corals. Like we do a lot of teaching on Heron Island, and that is a good opportunity to talk to people about the reef and just stand next to a coral and explain more about the corals and use the coral health chart. So yeah, there are opportunities. Most of the data gets collected with snorkeling and diving.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

What types of people around the world are participating in doing these Coral Watch surveys and how many of us are there?

SPEAKER_04 24:24

Yeah, so there's over 25,000 surveys done in 83 countries and over two and a half thousand reefs. And yeah, so this is the result of 24 years now. And overseas we've got lots of dive sensors involved that collect data on a very regular base. And this was also because of a collaboration with Patty and Project Aware and uh specialties that we can offer. And in Australia, we actually work a lot with schools, and that's probably also a result that we run more teacher workshops in Australia, so we get more direct involvement with teachers. But then there is also conservation groups worldwide, you know, you have those volunteer organizations where you can learn about marine science and volunteer for a few weeks. A lot of them have adopted the CoreWatch program. And then there are lots of scientists that use the CoreWatch method as a method, but unfortunately, most of the time we don't see that data. So they Oh, they're just stealing your slate. Yeah. But we get cited all the time. We have over 300 citations from people who use the core health chart because it's so simple and it's such a good reference because you have a number to relate to when you go back.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

It's such a good tool, isn't it? We really need to get this into our schools in North Queensland, don't we? Well, I think already.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

And of course there's also lots of teaching done in class. We actually take the coral health chat everywhere because it's such a good talking tool when you explain about coral bleaching and we have all virtual resources that we use to teach in class about coral bleaching.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

It sounds like you've made it so ubiquitous across the world, which is a huge accomplishment because there's a lot of citizen science programs. It's kind of exploded lately with all the different projects that are going on. But yours is the strength, is it's just so simple. Like it's just a simple slate, anyone can do it. And then it doesn't take that long to do because I did a couple of surveys at Fitzroy Island with some volunteers helping me a couple of weeks ago. So you just find 20 corals and you just write down the colours, doesn't take very long, and then you can just enjoy the rest of your snorkel in in peace. And then later when you get out of the water, you just jump on your phone and enter the data into the online database. So very, very simple. That's one of its strengths. Now, Tiana, some people might wonder though, whether volunteers can really collect data that's scientifically useful. Do you know if people make mistakes with this chart and and how do you make sure that the information is accurate?

SPEAKER_04 27:22

So being a citizen science program and giving anyone the opportunity to contribute, of course, will also create that people are really trying to do the right thing, but there will be mistakes. And one of a very common mistakes is if you're less familiar with the whole marine environment, you might mix up a soft coral with a sponge, for example. Or you might not even know exactly like sometimes you have dead parts of a coral.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Dead parts and what is covered in seaweed.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Yeah, so what is a healthy, where do you look for so those kind of mistakes can be made, but that's not directly a big issue because as long as you have a lot of information, if there are some errors, they will be minimized.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

And it is just a first indicator. So we're asking people to monitor whole year round, or especially also when the coral reef is healthy, monitor because we need that baseline data. To compare it with yeah, so you can compare. And then when a survey does show that it's very light in color, we ask people to do more surveys and get other people involved so we get more data. And then if still the same pattern occurs, we actually ask people to get local marine park authorities involved. So it's not really up to courts to say, Oh, you have to check this out in Indonesia and talk to Indonesian government. We're trying to create ownership by the users to take also the next step when they do realize the reef has changed and there is potential bleaching, that they contact experts, scientists or uh marine management to have a look for further investigation. So as a citizen scientist, you really can pick up these first signals. But if you didn't get it quite right, that's okay. But we always say when the reef is white, then there's something going on. Yes and it's not healthy. And that can also be because there's a big crown of thorn outbreak.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

But a white reef is not a healthy reef. So if your survey returns and it actually or database even gives you that signal, it will on our database all the data directly gets analyzed. So within five minutes, you see the results of your survey. And you will see if it is indicating any bleaching or not at all.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Wow, yeah. So so if someone's on holidays and they do one survey, that's useful. But you're saying it's especially useful if there's, you know, tourism workers or local divers who snorkel on the same site several times and then they can check if it's changing. Is that the most valuable thing? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Well, any survey is valuable because if even if you do one survey, it adds up to the existing survey. So you in your enter your data and there might be already 20 surveys of that reef, and you've just done one, and then your data contributes to the overall results.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

I do believe most of the tourism boats have these coral watch charts on there. I know that the boats that I worked on had them.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah. So I think Coral Watches has definitely made them available to every manager of a reef.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Get in there and use them, gang.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah, and I'm gonna use mine more often now that I've acquired mine. I did my first one on Fitzroy Island. Most of the corals that we did were a decent colour, but I want to go back and and do it over summer because you know we've got an El Nino summer coming, so it's gonna be important to track the changes.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah.

What Can I Do? Climate Action Project

SPEAKER_00 31:26

So one thing I really like about Coral Watch is that it's not just asking people to survey the coral reefs and keep continuously identifying that we have a problem, but you're also trying to empower people to do something about it. How are you getting people to take that next step and take action on things like coral bleaching, climate change?

SPEAKER_04 31:46

Yeah, so we recently started a new program, and it's the CoreWatch What Can I Do program, because it's a common question we get. Like, okay, reef is bleaching, what can I do? And climate change is really the biggest threat to reef, and the biggest thing you can do is reduce carbon emissions. So not everybody wants to go in the water and monitor the reef, and that's fine, that's no problem. But we decided to start a second program that's of course directly linked, where anyone at any time can do their bit from home. So help save reefs from home by reducing your carbon emissions within your household. And so we created an interactive educational fund platform where within seven categories we ask people how often they do certain actions. And because we're trying to find out what people are willing to do, uh what they do already, what has the biggest climate result as in biggest savings? And how can we motivate people to do the things that they are maybe less keen for? So where are the barriers and how can we solve these barriers? So so we have launched this program in early 2025, and we now have over eleven hundred people engaged in the platform, and we've got really interesting data results that we're working with to see how we can motivate people more to do their bit at home.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Wow, that's really interesting because it's absolutely true that if we want to solve the source of the coral bleaching and climate change, we don't just need to study corals, we need to study people. It's social science, isn't it? What is going to actually solve the problem is to do with humans. And so what are some of the things that you've discovered that you've you've got all these people using the it's an app, right? Can people download it from the app store?

SPEAKER_04 33:59

No, it's uh just uh web-based platform.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

Yeah, so it's a web-based platform. So we directly work with social scientists and yeah, we're trying to reach more of the non-converted to do their bid. And we actually did a very interesting market panel research where it was sent to 500 people randomly that have no connection to the reef and don't know about CoreWatch, what they think about the platform and if they learned new things. And one of the very interesting facts that came out because we also ask people if they believe in anthropogenic climate change, and some people say no. But even climate change deniers are willing to do certain climate actions and we're willing to promote the platform. So that was a really interesting argument.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Well, there's overlaps, isn't there? You know, like composting is good for the climate, but it also means you can grow better vegetables. Or you know, there's many benefits of living this way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Yeah, it's very interesting to learn more about human behaviour towards climate action.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Yeah, was that was there any other really surprising attitudes or beliefs that you found from this project?

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Yeah, so one of the things people are definitely keen to do more advocacy, but there is definitely a big barrier there.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

It's they think it's scary or it is scary.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

Yeah, that is something definitely to think about. Like how can we make it less scary to be an advocate for the other vibe.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Well, hopefully that's one of Brett and my goals is to let everyone know that you can be advocates. Like start talking to your friends and family, or you know, if you've got any communication skills or art skills, if there's any anyone creative out there, use your social media or your art or your poetry or your radio show or your letter writing, anything you can, so many different ways to be a voice for the voiceless animals of the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yep, absolutely. Or come and listen to one of my shows, that'll change it.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yep. Yep. So uh one of the big questions regarding the Coral Watch surveys is what have been the most interesting discoveries from that data that has been collected over the past 24 years using the Coral Watch chart?

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Yeah, so there have been several studies initially to

CoralWatch Research

SPEAKER_04 36:28

see if there is really a difference between a scientist and a non-scientist collecting data, like a validation study. We've done another validation study where we link all data to existing coral bleaching events that are recorded, and it shows that citizen science data can really pick up the signals and can definitely contribute to science. And another interesting one was during 2024 severe bleaching event on Heron Island that we did lots of surveys, but the data was not picking up the bleaching event. And what we found was that the bleaching was very patchy. So maybe within one colony there would be a six and a one. And the database uses the average result. So everything 2.1 and above is considered healthy. So it was picking up that the reef was healthy, which was not the right thing. So we are now with our data analysis, also include the number of ones. So if you do a survey and you record lots of ones, which is white. Yeah, which is white, then you know something is wrong.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:53

So it's and that's actually so easy. But yeah, that bleaching event on Heron was devastating and it was heartbreaking. But weird enough, we also learned a lot about it during that event. And not only us, we had a whole UQ bleaching task force team where we looked at all different scales at what was happening during this event. And yeah, we h learned heaps.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Yeah. Yeah, wow. So for any listeners who aren't familiar, a single coral could be bleached completely white on the top that's facing the sun, and it could still be dark brown and have lots of Suzanthelae on the bottom or like deeper down. And so that's why if you're using this chart and you're writing down, well, the top was one and the bottom was five or six, and then the system just averages it out and thinks that the coral's healthy. And so I understand that's why you needed to sort of adjust the system to adapt to the levels of bleaching that we are now seeing nowadays. And

2024 Bleaching Event

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Heron Island, I've been there once, it's absolutely incredible. I highly recommend anyone to put it on their bucket list. Absolutely full of turtles and rays and everything you can always. And yes, coral bleaching has happened six times on the Great Barrier Reef in the last ten years. Six mass bleachings, I should say. If you count other patchy bleachings in between, then it would be pretty much every year, unfortunately. But six mass coral bleaching events over the past ten years and it sort of hits a threshold of being designated as a mass coral bleaching event when it reaches a certain size of area that's impacted. And we're talking about, you know, thousands of square kilometres. So we've had six mass coral bleaching events the last ten years, but each of them has been a little bit different. And like you said, Diana, the 2024 one was the worst that we've pretty much ever had, and it was particularly bad on that southern reef near Heron Island. So it must have been Yeah, I I I mean, as someone like yourself that's been diving and snorkeling on Heron for so long, what was it like?

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Oh, it was heartbreaking. You know, you could just cry because I've never seen it like that. Heron Reef actually escaped lots of bleaching events, and this time the whole reef was white, and there were beautiful big coral bombies, like big varieties bombies that are thousands years old and like four or five metres across, and they are just completely white. Oh, that's devastating. Look at that. And it took we actually took a whole photo series of those bombies, and it took about seven months to recover. And the sad news is then sometimes they get hit again in the year after. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Yeah, it's

Get Involved!

SPEAKER_00 40:46

it's never hard. It's never been more urgent to take action and do the things that are in your what can I do project to everyone out there everyone out there doesn't want to see that sort of thing happening on our beautiful planet. So uh how can listeners get involved and find out more?

SPEAKER_04 41:05

Yeah, just hop on our website. If you're a diver or snorkler, order a free chart, we'll send it to you. Please have a look and get involved with the what can I do program because that's something that everyone can do. And I always say, I talk about coral reefs, but if you love another environment more than coral reefs, another ecosystem, that's fine because we have to do it for the whole planet.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Absolutely. If you do the what can I do steps to reduce carbon footprints, then that's going to help keep snow on our ski slopes, it's going to help protect all of our marine life, it's going to protect our farmers' crops from drought and and flood, it's going to protect our homes. And that's why making a a statement about protecting the Great Barrier Reef, for us, it's about saving ourselves and saving the whole planet. Yep. So what's the most rewarding part of being involved in Coral Watch?

SPEAKER_04 42:07

Training volunteers for the Reef. So we have an ambassador program where we train on a yearly base 15 people that become volunteers for the reef true co-watch. And these are people from different walks of life, different backgrounds, different ages, different skills, different circles of influence. And I love teaching that workshop. I find it a real privilege and to work with all these people that are passionate about the reef, that's our common theme, but have different ideas of what they can do. So we have artists involved, we have marine scientists, teachers, we have retirees, we have kids. We have the whole show involved to help the Reef and learn from each other what you think you can do to raise more awareness of how we together can make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Oh, that's beautiful. Again, what's your website if people want to head there and check it out?

SPEAKER_04 43:11

www.coralwatch.org.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

CoralWatch.org.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Get on there, guys. Get your charts sorted.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Yeah, and if you don't have access to go and snorkle on a reef, do the What Can I Do program and find out small steps you can take in your own life to reduce carbon emissions, reduce climate change, and thereby help protect reefs. Sadly, that's all we have time for today. Diana Klein, project manager for the University of Queensland's Coral Watch program. Thanks for all your amazing work and thanks for joining us on Word on the Reef today. Thanks for inviting me. And thanks to you, all of our listeners, for joining us on Word on the Reef with me, Tony Murphy, and co-host Brett Fairness. We'll be back next week with more Marine Science Adventures at 10 a.m. Friday on 10 December 89.1.