Reef Resilience

But while the threats this 1,430-mile (2,300-kilometer) stretch of intersecting reefs faces are very real and urgent, local environmental and tourism experts say that reminding tourists of the staggering diversity of marine life still left to see there is of utmost importance since tourists are one of the most vital parts of the reef’s life-support system.

Because the project receives no government funding and survives entirely on public donations and tourism dollars, Great Barrier Reef Legacy co-runs citizen-science-themed trips where tourists can observe Biobank coral collections take place.

“Trips like this are valuable in three ways,” explains Miller. “Our partners Australian Geographic and Coral Expeditions donated $30,000 to the Biobank from the last trip, so we were able to get some important funding while we went out to do the work we needed to do, plus we got to share that with the Australian public on board.”

This symbiotic relationship forged between tourism operators, scientists and tourists offers a practical solution to maintaining the reef’s health. The other benefit of this intersection, according to Miller, is that each tourist who visits the reef can then become an ambassador for it.

“Pre-COVID there were something like two million visitors accessing the reef each year; they should be two million ambassadors who walk away saying ‘I’m going to do something.This is way too special to let slip,” he says.

Still, the paradox is that one of the major causes of reef degradation — rising sea temperatures due to global warming — is increased by the emissions-heavy activities inherent in tourism, including travel by plane and gas-powered boats.

“The involvement of tourists in reef conservation is becomingly increasingly important, explains Ridley, with a growing number of tourism operators also contributing to conservation. “Being a tourist on the reef is helping fund those initiatives, so making sure you’re traveling with the right businesses is key,” he says.

Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef also runs the Great Reef Census, an initiative that invites any tourist to take photos of the reef and post them online for other citizen scientists from around the world to analyze and compare to gain a better understanding of how the reef is changing year after year.

“It’s no longer good enough to give your money to one of the big conservation organizations and think they’ll fix everything because we already know they don’t and they can’t,” says Ridley.

Juan Walker is from the Kuku Yalanji people in Far North Queensland’s Mossman/Daintree area where he runs Walkabout Cultural Adventures. As a First Nations Australian who has been introducing travelers to Indigenous traditions for the past 20 years, Walker intimately understands the special relationship between the reef, the Aboriginal people who have been custodians of it for thousands of years, and travelers.

“It would be good to have more Indigenous employed as sea rangers, to patrol and look after the Great Barrier Reef, as we have a deep interest in, and connection to, the local environments as traditional custodians,” he says.

Central to this positive impact, says Walker, is moving away from more shortsighted, extractive colonial ways and shifting toward Indigenous ideas of walking lightly on the earth.

“Native people around the world adapted to their environments rather than adapting the environments to suit them,” says Walker. “It’s about finding that happy medium, now, in a modern world.”

Fred Nucifora, director of reef education and engagement for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, says that traveling with expert guides can help visitors understand what’s healthy and what’s damaged, making sure everyone who leaves the reef does so as a well-informed messenger who can tell the world that while the reef is under threat, it’s not dead, and there are things everyone can do to protect it.

That was the impetus behind the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority creating their Master Reef Guide program, which trains guides to essentially become the best in their field.

The example of the crown-of-thorns starfish is one Nucifora uses to illustrate the importance of balanced messaging and context. At a glance, it might seem like the creature is devastating reefs. But that’s not the full story — in fact, the starfish plays an important role in reef health.

“Their favorite foods are the faster-growing species of coral, so in balanced numbers, crown-of-thorns starfish actually clear out real estate for slower-growing species to grow into, helping contribute to coral diversity,” says Nucifora. “It’s when you get outbreaks of starfish that the balance is upset, and that’s when they can have devastating impacts.”

“People often come to the reef with a preconceived idea of what’s here based on what they’ve see in coffee-table books with all the colorful corals and manta rays and whales,” says Nucifora. “They’re all here, but a Master Reef Guide enriches the experience by saying ‘Hey, did you see that little goby digging in the sand? Do you know what they’re doing to the reef biologically by doing that?’ It’s those little things.”