Listen up Thalassophiles! You can mermaid dream until your heart’s content with this cool map showcasing daily underwater vision of the sites visited by tour vessels in the Cairns & Great Barrier Reef region.
The innovative program has been launched by Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ).
It’s Great Barrier Reef today webpage states “the tourism industry works closely with the scientific community to monitor and protect the Great Barrier Reef making it the world’s best-managed reef system.”
The reef in real-time
WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING ON GREAT BARRIER REEF TODAY?Very latest REEF TODAY, filmed yesterday Friday 21 and Thursday 20 on reef. Presented by Gareth Phillips, filmed and produced by Stuart Ireland. This imagery is all recent, unlike a majority of imagery circulating in mainstream media and online. Calm conditions, increased UV and warm February waters have caused some minor bleaching on certain species and individual colonies. It's still too early to predict what will happen, but the weekend conditions are bringing rain, cloud and cooler conditions which will help reduce heat stress. I encourage all image makers on reef to capture and send RECENT imagery to eye on the reef Great Barrier Reef Marine Park , TTNQ and REEF TODAY. Please don't send old imagery. For latest reef health reports GBRMPA are posting weekly updates.For latest reef education updates Reef Teach, Cairns, AustraliaFor latest REEF TODAY updates please visit and follow our Vimeo channel https://vimeo.com/channels/reefFINAL NOTE, I must stress that even if we escape bleaching this year, the reef is still under enormous pressure from increasing sea temperatures, ocean acidification, among others. While I believe only the reef can save itself, we can protect and nurture it by changing our ways right now, but it all starts with us as individuals. Everyone must do there part #LoveTheReef #greatbarrierreef #reefteachcairns #reefteach #calypsoreefimagery #reeftoday #coral #coralbleaching #exploreFNQ #nature
Posted by Calypso Reef Imagery on Friday, February 21, 2020
TTNQ Chief Executive Officer Mark Olsen said tour operators were regularly documenting what they saw for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s (GBRMPA) Eye on the Reef monitoring program.
“TTNQ is also sharing this information on a map to make it easier for people to see what the reef looks like before they visit,”
Mark Olsen, TTNQ Chief Executive Officer.
Great Barrier Reef Today is another example of operators in the Cairns & Great Barrier Reef region working with the science community by compiling data to give GBRMPA a clear picture of the reef’s health.
“The first daily natural history records of the Great Barrier Reef were gathered by tourism operator Reef Biosearch in 1986 and these were the catalyst for GBRMPA’s Eye on the Reef program.”
“The partnership between tourism and science has continued to grow and last year included a world-first IVF program during the annual coral spawn,” Olsen continued.
READ: REEF CLIMAX: Last Night’s Coral Spawning “One Of The Best”
READ: UNDER THE SEA: First look at the Great Barrier Reef’s underwater suites
Get involved!
If you fancy sharing your Great Barrier Reef encounter, ‘Eye on the Reef Sightings Network’ is a community-based program developed to capture the interesting, unusual and amazing experiences people have on the Great Barrier Reef.
Travellers are being encouraged to use #GreatBarrierReefToday when they post images of the reef and to upload them to the Eye on the Reef app to give a snapshot of what the Great Barrier Reef looks like on that day.
Click here for more information.