What do you get when the University of Tasmania, Reef Life Survey, and Antarctic tour operator Aurora Expeditions join forces? An expedition of epic proportions, bringing Reef Life Survey cofounders Rick and Graham to the bottom of the planet to conduct our coolest surveys yet.
Wadjemup (Rottnest Island), was not always an island; instead, it was connected to mainland Australia up until ~6,500 years ago. As sea levels rose, the island became isolated, providing providing refuge for the shallow, stunning reefs we know and love today. The island holds deep cultural significance for the Whadjuk Noongar people, who have a long-standing connection to this beautiful place.
RLS has been surveying Wadjemup nearly every year since 2008, with 2025 marking our 16th year (excluding 2024). Despite only 300 permanent residents, the island attracts 700,000–800,000 visitors each year. People flock to Wadjemup to experience its sparkling waters, white sandy beaches, salt lakes, wetlands—and of course, its most famous residents, the smiling quokkas (thank you, Roger Federer, for that selfie in 2018!).
The Ningaloo Reef is the longest fringing coral reef in Australia, stretching more than 300km along Western Australia’s coral coast from the North West Cape to Red Bluff. This is Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinikurtira land and sea. Reef Life Survey has been collecting data from this beautiful coral reef since 2008, with >450 transects surveyed to date. In August 2024, the team banded together once again to add a further 36 surveys to the database.
The Reef Life Survey Europe Association was officially launched during a successful fifth annual sampling trip to Melilla in June, 2024. Part of the European team, Jose
A. Sanabria-Fernández, Natali Lazzari, Cesc Gordó-Vilaseca, and Ángel Orozco, built on their existing time series of monitoring sites, completing 28 surveys across 16 locations.
Reef Life Survey divers have been regularly collecting biodiversity data at the World Heritage Listed Lord Howe Island Group for over a decade, and have recently returned from a massive survey effort in a continuation of this ongoing monitoring. Completing 82 surveys across 32 longstanding monitoring sites, the data collected enable RLS to report on the condition of Lord Howe's shallow reefs, as well as ongoing and emerging trends through time.
