Tour boats jumping on board operation reef rescue

Ocean Health

Shaun Hollis

Journalist

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Brett Wright, of Windswell Adventures, has been helping protect the reef for at least two decades. Picture: Byron Filmer

Port Douglas tour operators are leading the charge in pioneering better ways to help protect the Great Barrier Reef.

One industry leader is Brett Wright, of Windswell Adventures, who said efforts to keep the reef clean and healthy have developed rapidly since he started 20 years ago, but much more could still be done.

“The big corporates are starting to throw their weight behind it,” Mr Wright said.

“Port Douglas definitely has some of the best operators in the business, if not the world.”

Across the past two decades Mr Wright and some of his Douglas-based friends have been at the forefront of reef programs, including what has now become a multi-million dollar project to combat crown-of-thorns starfish.

“We were just witnessing these starfish munching the reef,” he said.

“We thought we could start nailing them.”

A 50c reef tax was introduced for all tourists, which has now grown to about $8 collected by operators such as Windswell on behalf of the Federal Government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Mr Wright said starfish outbreaks were “like a bushfire going through”.

“It’s the frequency of these events now that we are all worried about.”

His crew had also recently been collecting rubbish from beaches all the way from Port Douglas to Cape York.

“I think we pulled two-and-half-tonnes off.

“We can be doing a lot more, the rubbish is still there."

Mr Wright said Tangaroa Blue Foundation chief executive Heidi Tait had been helping coordinate volunteers across the country to clean up beaches, but more needed to be done to stop boats jettisoning plastic off the Far North Queensland coastline.

“It’s a bit overwhelming, to be honest.”

He said there were many operators on board now, but Quicksilver was one of the first to start the movement.

Quicksilver Group environment and compliance manager Phil Coulthard said the reef was an “absolutely beautiful example” of what a coral reef system was, and operators were starting to take more responsibility for its protection.

“We’re having a few issues, there’s been a few reasons for us to be concerned for the health of our reefs,” Mr Coulthard said.

“We know there are some issues with things like climate change.”

Mr Coulthard said the reef was ”still in relatively pristine condition”, and operators were playing a crucial role to conserve, preserve and better understand the natural wonder.

“We have the perfect platform to be able to do that. 

“If we do it together, it’s going to be much more effective.”

Another initiative which has been ramped up is the Eye on the Reef program - a joint project between the federal GBRMPA and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife service.

More operators are being trained to regularly report information on an app about reef health, marine animals and incidents that occur.

For more information go to gbrmpa.gov.au

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