Overview and Objectives

Studying coastal fish along the Woongarra Marine Park region has long been a goal of the Woongarra Marine Park Monitoring & Education Project Steering Group and Project Officers. Several project volunteers have expressed interest and concern for local fish ecology, and have made several suggestions about monitoring efforts.

In 2001 the WMPMEP began some fish work by reviewing, sorting and cataloguing an extensive collection of fish slides photographed by Tony Tubbenhauer, and by having a closer look at the many and varied tide pool fish during Tide Pool Monitoring activities. We also extended our networking and resources to access a range of expertise that will assist in developing a fish monitoring program.

WMPMEP's Fish Focus, a project activity dedicated to monitoring fish ecology in Woongarra Marine Park, was conceived in 2000, and has been planned over three developmental phases.
In Phase 1, January through July 2002 (included under Coastcare contract 717701), the objectives are:

1. To conduct a desktop research overview of current fish survey techniques and a review of main data objectives of each

2. To collate any previous fish surveys for the Woongarra Marine Park including those by Graham Lowe "Coastal Fishes of Woongarra" 1988, and research that has been undertaken by Eddie Jebreen, QDPI and Jeff Johnson from the Queensland Museum to provide a baseline master list of fish species which may occur in the Woongarra Marine Park.

3. To collaborate with the various management and research agencies to investigate current fish survey work being undertaken elsewhere, especially that undertaken by community groups or volunteers

4. To select appropriate aims and an achievable methodology for monitoring coastal or tide pool fishes that can be undertaken by project volunteers and produce relevant data

5. To recruit a team of Fish Focus volunteers that are interested in finding out more about Woongarra's fish or improving their own fish identification skills.

6. To identify existing skills within this volunteer base and build upon this knowledge with additional field and educational activities.

In Phases 2 and 3 we intend to trial and implement a suitable monitoring program for coastal fishes that can be achieved using community volunteers and local experts

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