BEACH

Aim:

With a combination of professional science, citizen science, and community education, the Biodiversity Education and Action for the Cooloola Habitats Project aims to support the conservation, the enhancement of the quality and biodiversity of the coastal catchments of the Cooloola Coast through community partnerships to monitor and improve water quality to protect and enhance biodiversity.

Biodiversity Education and Action for the Cooloola Habitats (BEACH) will use a Collective Impact Model of collective action and education to engage stakeholders, organizations, specialist contractors and the community in scientific research, Citizen Science, community education and youth engagement to achieve the project aims.

Activities

• Cooloola Sediment Investigation (CSI): Assessing Creeks as Turbidity in Tin Can Bay Inlet which is affecting biodiversity and as a result tourism, recreational fishing and commercial fishing.
• Turbidity in Creeks: Conduct an underwater assessment at the mouth of creeks around Tin Can Inlet to investigate the up-stream sources of waterborne sediment causing seawater turbidity that has severely affected marine life population density resulting in a lack of biodiversity and low density of populations of marine creatures in the Tin Can Inlet as found in the GRC funded research conducted by Cooloola Coastcare, the Cooloola Underwater Biodiversity Assessment (CUBA, 2016-7).
• Moorings & Anchoring - Documenting Habitat Impact and Posing Solutions: Engage an underwater cameraman and marine biologist to survey the impact of the mooring and anchor chains identified as an incidental finding in the CUBA 2016-7 assessment. Document the scope of this damage using underwater videography and photography. Through community consultation with stakeholders and experts in mooring design and anchoring management practices identify solutions to address the problem drawing on effective practices in other jurisdictions.
• Train the existing WaterWatch volunteers and new recruits in the use of the new equipment. Train the Coastcare Coordinator in the calibration of the new equipment.
• “Cooloola BioBlitz 2019 – Autumn” will be conducted in collaboration with the Fraser Island Defenders Organization and collect all photographic data via a digital app to be harvested into the Atlas of Living Australia and Queensland biodiversity databases.