Marine Monitoring Program: Annual Report Inshore Water Quality Monitoring 2023-24

Abstract

The water quality component of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program reports on the annual and long-term condition in inshore water quality of the Great Barrier Reef with reference to 19 years of monitoring data. This report presents the results for the 2023–24 water monitoring year (1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024). The program design includes the collection of samples along transects in the Cape York, Wet Tropics, Burdekin, and Mackay-Whitsunday regions year-round, with higher frequency sampling during the wet season to better characterise this period of episodic river discharge. Monitoring also occurs in the Fitzroy region through the Fitzroy Basin Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality, and results are presented within this report. Satellite imagery and modelling are linked with in situ monitoring data to estimate the exposure of inshore areas to end-of-catchment loads from rivers for all Reef catchment regions.