Al Songcuan

Reef Ecologic

A scientific paper and video were published in 2022 which analysed data from 2021. Quantifying Catch Rates, Shark Abundance and Depredation Rate at a Spearfishing Competition on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia Citizen scientists repeated the survey during the 2022 competition. A total of 71 fish were captured of which 32 were pelagic fish weigh...

The largest underwater sculpture in the world, the ‘Coral Greenhouse’ by artist Jason deCaires Taylor, was commissioned by the Museum of Underwater Art and installed at John Brewer Reef, Australia, in December 2019. The planning process required certified engineering design drawings associated with design life, durability and suitability of materia...

We developed and applied a method to quantify spearfisher effort and catch, shark interac- tions and shark depredation in a boat-based recreational spearfishing competition in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Queensland. Survey questions were designed to collect targeted quantitative data whilst minimising the survey burden of spearfishers. We...

The largest underwater sculpture in the world, the 'Coral Greenhouse’ by artist Jason deCaires Taylor, was commissioned by the Museum of Underwater Art and installed at John Brewer Reef in December 2019. The underwater installation comprises 49 sculptures. A condition of permits G19/42006.1 and G20/44358.1 is to conduct annual monitoring of substra...

Reef Ecologic facilitated a citizen science event (ReefBlitz 2022) between 1-8 June 2022. This initiative aimed to involve users of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area in observing and learning about wildlife in their local area. We chose the citizen science app iNaturalist as it was previously used for ReefBlitz in 2014 and 2015 and it is...

Researchers completed an expedition to Helix Reef and surveyed four sites utilising multiple citizen science tools: Citizens of the GBR Great Barrier Reef Census, Eye on the Reef’s Reef Health Impact Survey and iNaturalist. We took over 1000 underwater photographs and videos. We report several endangered and protected species including Green turtle...

Scientific, tourism and non-government organisations collaborated to design and undertake a small-scale coral outplanting intervention at Fitzroy Island, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Cairns, Australia. Activities were implemented to assist recovery of a reef showing signs of reduced coral cover after recent coral bleaching and to trial potential f...

Vingroup sought advice from Reef Ecologic Pty Ltd to provide strategic advice about enhancing existing marine protected areas and options for the future. Vingroup has undertaken some desktop research and interviews with local fishermen, local divers, and opinions from the Marine Institute of Oceanology and Institute of Ecology & Biological Resource...

Reef Ecologic Pty Ltd was commissioned by Greaton Keswick to conduct underwater surveys of benthic habitat along the potential footprint of the proposed marina site at Horseshoe Bay, Keswick island. The survey methodology involved quantitative and qualitative methods including underwater habitat surveys using Reef Health Impact Surveys (RHIS) at 16...

This report is based on methods outlined in the monitoring plan designed by Reef Ecologic Pty Ltd and Whitsundays Regional Council which clarifies monitoring activities for the underwater sculptures at Manta Ray Bay, Blue Pearl Bay, Langford Reef and Horseshoe Bay. Monitoring comprises 3 primary elements below: 1. Environmental, 2. Social and 3. I...

This report is the first desktop assessment of biological and cultural values of Wulgurukaba Sea Country. It documents cultural knowledge and recent marine scientific research. We have used Wulguru language names for key marine habitats and species (from Donahue 1977) to recognise and share traditional, cultural and scientific knowledge. We summari...

Following several shark bite incidents in the Whitsundays from 2018 to 2019, the Queensland Government commissioned research to understand the abundance, distribution and movement of sharks in the Whitsundays. In conjunction with this research, Fisheries Queensland commissioned Reef Ecologic to work with key stakeholders in the Whitsundays to inves...

A rapid monitoring assessment of fish and invertebrates at the Coral Greenhouse, (a large underwater sculpture) located at John Brewer Reef was conducted in February 2021. A total of 257 individuals were observed from 41 species of fish. We found a significant difference in fish abundance in 2018 compared to 2020. No significant changes were observ...

The Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) is an innovative project combining underwater art, research and education proposed for the waters around Townsville, Queensland. The aims of the project are to increase knowledge, education, stewardship, tourism and conservation of the Reef and the region This Public Information Package focuses on Stage 2 and 3...

In August 2020 and April 2021, Reef Ecologic conducted environmental site assessments of potential intertidal and subtidal sites for underwater sculptures adjacent to Magnetic Island. The team obtained aerial drone and underwater photographs and surveyed the sites for benthic cover. The 2021 site assessment builds on the previous 2017 site assessme...

The remote Kanton (Abariringa) Atoll, in the South Pacific Phoenix Islands Protected Area, was assessed using rapid techniques to describe the infrastructure, fish, coral, birds, vegetation, sharks, turtles and marine mammals. Median live coral cover was 28% (8% - 93%) with 11 coral genera, the most abundant being tabular Acropora spp. A total of 1...

Coral nurseries and reef restoration were established in the Whitsundays region in 2018. In June 2020 Reef Ecologic and partners outplanted the surviving 955 coral colonies onto the surrounding reef at Blue Pearl and Manta Ray Bays. There were two objectives of the research: 1. Compare pre, post and 6 monthly monitoring of coral cover, fish and in...

The Museum of Underwater (MOUA) ‘Coral greenhouse artwork’ comprises 47 facilities including a large greenhouse structure containing 8 human figures and 8 benches. Surrounding the Coral Greenhouse are 14 trees, 9 human figures, 4 planter boxes and 3 pavements. The Reef Ecologic team conducted a scientific assessment of the substrate and marine li...

Innovative underwater, multi-story, ecologically friendly coral nurseries (trays, ropes) established in 2018 at two popular Whitsunday tourism locations were supported by a 6 month bridging grant from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to Reef Ecologic for 2020. Regular monthly field trips were undertaken by scientists, citizen scientists and touris...

In December 2018 the Reef Restoration Foundation established the first coral nurseries at Fitzroy Island, near Cairns, Australia. The first cohort of nursery raised coral colonies were outplanted onto degraded sections of the surrounding reef in September 2018. We measured changes in benthic cover over a 12 month period to assess the effect of outp...

Hayman Island resort is constructing a desalination system and the pipeline is proposed to be located over the reef flat and onto the reef slope, finishing approximately 200m offshore at a minimum depth of 12 meters of water. The pipeline is approximately 0.5m wide and a total width of between 1.6m and 3m including the anchors. The scope of works f...

Interest in blue carbon has drastically increased in recent years, particularly in improving the coastal resource carbon storage estimates and the development of methodology for identifying and monitoring such resources. In coastal resource mapping, participatory mapping techniques have the potential to provide a level of granularity and detail by...

The nationwide mapping and inventory of coastal resources (mangrove, seagrass, and corals) from remote sensing surveys in the Philippines provided a number of applications, mainly in the management and protection of these resources. A method for assessing the vulnerability of coastal resources to climate change was developed using existing coastal...

The Philippines is one of the top countries in fish production using aquaculture. Through the use of remotely sensed data, such as LiDAR and satellite imagery, with the aid of geographic information system (GIS) software, several methodologies have been developed in order to map aquaculture areas. Vulnerability of features is assessed by incorporat...

Remotely sensed data was used as inputs to a GIS-based vulnerability assessment from climate change of coastal resources of selected sites in the Philippines. Maps of mangroves, seagrass and coral areas obtained from LiDAR surveys and satellite images served as the smallest unit of analysis. Sensitivity and Adaptive Capacity criteria were identifie...

Vulnerability assessment (VA) is a concept recently being developed and widely used in various fields. The complexity and diversity of VA allows us to tailor fit frameworks according to specific targets, range, data availability and stakeholder capacity. This study developed a GIS-based framework for vulnerability assessment of coastal resources (i...

Accurate spatial information of mangrove forest extent is essential for both land-use planning and natural resources management. In this study, we assessed the spatial distribution of mangrove forest in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte for the years 2000 and 2010 using publicly available Landsat data. Landsat images from 1994-2000 and 2006-2010 we...

Variation in climate is a natural phenomenon extending over almost all time scales, from seasonal to yearly changes and spatial ranging from regional to global. Climate variability is not often observed as compared to weather that varies on a daily basis. Common drivers of climate variability include El Niño and La Niña events, volcanic eruptions a...