Eye on the Reef monitoring program training manual: a complete guide to monitoring your reef tourism site

Abstract

The Eye on the Reef is the largest tourism-driven coral reef monitoring program of its kind. Since its inception, the program has continued to expand, involving operators based in Port Douglas, Cairns, Townsville, the Whitsundays and the southern Great Barrier Reef (Reef). The program was developed in the 1990s with the specific goal of documenting observations made by marine tourism staff who work on the Great Barrier Reef every day. Tourism operators are some of our most important partners in monitoring the health of the Great Barrier Reef. They know their sites well and can collect long term data that’s invaluable for research and management in assessing the long term conditions of the Reef.