A world-first citizen science project has kicked off on the Great Barrier Reef today with a flotilla of research vessels, tourism boats, private boats, and superyachts deployed to key sites to capture large-scale reconnaissance data to support reef research and management.

Over the next 10 weeks, the Great Reef Census led by Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, will see boats across the Reef’s 2,300km length, from Lady Elliot Island in the south to the remote Far North capturing data.

Comprising over 3,000 individual reefs, capturing reconnaissance data in the form of images from across the Great Barrier Reef is an immense task which requires new and innovative ways of working together.

Following a successful pilot program in 2019, this year sees a major scale-up to 100 priority reefs from the remote far northern reefs, to the Swains and Lady Elliot Island, with the intention to build on this year’s learnings to launch an even bigger Great Reef Census in 2021.

This collaborative approach across science, tourism and local communities seeks to establish an innovative and scalable method to conservation challenges, as well as foster a sense of stewardship for the Reef.

“To achieve the scale required this year needs a massive collective effort and that's what we're seeing, from the tourism industry, to some of the Reef’s top scientists, tech companies and reef managers,” Andy Ridley, CEO Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef said.

“In essence, we’re utilising the skills, vessels and knowledge of many passionate people to build a reef-wide research flotilla.”

In November, citizen scientists from around the world will be invited to participate online by helping to analyse the reef images captured.

Given the immense size of the Great Barrier Reef, the impacts of climate change, extreme weather and poor water quality are patchy, affecting some reefs or areas of reef more than others. The reconnaissance data captured during the Great Reef Census is a trial to explore new ways for how citizen science data can help scientists and managers improve their ability to locate some of the most important sources of coral recovery.

“Healthy reefs release many larvae or ‘baby corals’ during the annual mass spawning event and play an important role in helping their neighbours recover from disturbance events like coral bleaching,” Professor Peter Mumby, University of Queensland said.

“We need information on where these ‘key source reefs’ are located to help researchers and managers better target their resources.”