A Living Natural Gem

You often hear me say “I love where I live” and that’s for many reasons, one being the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

I recently had the opportunity to attend this year’s Reef Forum 2050. The forum had 100 stakeholders from Federal, State and Local Government, as well as scientists and academia, statisticians, natural resource management groups, business and tourist operators and, of course, recreational fishing representatives.

We saw the timeline for the past 50 years that the Marine Park Authority have achieved to protect the health of the GBR for future generations.  This forum was a check-in, looking from where we have come from to where we are at now and where we want to be by 2050.

The GBR is natural and living; so many of us have visited it, fished and researched it.  However, the world’s eyes are upon it, and it is at risk of ending up on the endangered list.

You might think that’s great, as it will be preserved for the future. Yes, it will, but in my opinion the use we currently have may not be the use we get and could be heavily restricted, and public access may be no more, should it be listed endangered.

So, what can we do? We must maintain the health of the reef so that it doesn’t decline any more, we must listen to our traditional custodians and collaborate with many stakeholders.  We must work together to achieve better water quality from the agriculture and Local Government sectors. For anglers, we must ensure our catch limits are monitored, and we need to ensure any pressures like heat stress, crown of thorn starfish and weather events that impact the GBR are managed and mitigated.

Tourist operators are already great stewards, reporting and maintaining their areas above what is required to ensure they are doing their part.  Commercial fishers have had changes in their sectors and realise they must tread lightly, or the resource will not be there into the future.  Recreational Fishers also must play their part and so should you.

I look forward to seeing the outcomes from this forum and see the new ways of doing things on the GBR to make sure it is healthy into the future.

Councillor Alison Jones, email Cr.Alison.Jones@mackay.qld.gov.au

Let’s Chat – Council Connect
Residents can catch up with councillors in person at upcoming Let’s Chat - Council Connect sessions held across the region.  The next session will be at Mackay Regional Council's Mirani office (20 Victoria Street) from 5.30pm on November 18.
Details on upcoming sessions can be found on the Connecting Mackay website.

‍