For most, Port Douglas is the end of the road to the North, a comfortable, if dull, collection of resorts, restaurants, bars and boutiques. For RLS, though, it is the starting point for journeys into a region that is at once remote and the centre of trade routes, teeming with marine life and threatened with danger, a meeting place of ancient cultures of Australia and the Pacific and the scene of historical and political drama.
Last year Derek "Dusty" Shields received the prestigious Scoresby Shepherd award for outstanding contributions to the Reef Life Survey program. Learn all about this outstanding RLS contributor.
A Reef Life Survey team of nine divers (including two new trainees) descended on Port Phillip Bay for the 8th year in February 2017. They completed 40 surveys from 18 sites around the Bay. Overall, 64 species of fish and 84 species of invertebrates and cryptic fishes were recorded during the the 4-day diving expedition.
The recent Reef Life Survey trip to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, with assistance from Parks Victoria, recorded over 76 species of fish, 57 invertebrate species, and 16 cryptic fish species, with 45 sites surveyed in total.... read more about survey the trip in this report by volunteer John Turnbull.
The second year Rocky Cape, in north west Tasmania has been monitored by RLS has continued the trend of interesting records. Eleven RLS divers completed 28 transects across 8 sites, scoring 51 species of fish and 41 species of mobile invertebrate.
