1. Reef Check Training Course
Introduction to Coral Reefs
Introduction to Reef Check
Data Quality
Team Tasks
The Methods: The Planning Stage
The Methods: The Survey

2. Introduction to coral reefs

3. What is a coral reef?
Made up of large hard corals that build the reef structure and support a myriad of life;
They are tropical ecosystems that rival only rainforests in species diversity. This is BIODIVERSITY.
Photo by Jos Hill, 2002

4. Why care about coral reefs?
Rainforests of the sea. E.g.. Nursery ground for 25% of marine species and home to 33% of all known fish species;
Important food source for millions of people;
Source of medicines;
Coastal protection from wave erosion to 1/6 of world’s coastline;
Source of islands & white sand beaches for tourist resorts;
Cover less than 1% of the sea (Coral reefs cover over km2) but are extremely important ecosystems to humans.
Aside from their beauty, to lose these ecosystems spells exacerbated poverty for millions of people in the tropical world.
The economic potential of tourism is huge. The annual revenue is about 25 times greater than that of fishing
In some areas a single km2 of coral reef can bring in US$3million in tourism revenue compared to $ for destructive fishing
20 million scuba divers;
Great beauty and spiritual value.

5. What conditions do coral reefs require?
Light;
Low nutrient, clear water;
Salinity around 32-42/ppm;
Temperature between 18-29ºC;
Waves and good water circulation;
Light
Reef-building corals contain single-celled algae in their tissues called zooxanthellae.
The algae live in a symbiotic relationship with the coral. This means that they are reliant on each other for their mutual survival.
The algae provides the coral with food that it manufactures from photosynthesis and in return gets a safe home as well as nutrients from the waste excreted by the coral polyp.
Because the zooxanthellae rely on light, these reef-building corals are restricted to the shallow depths of coral reefs.
Low nutrient and clear water
The numerous organisms that inhabit coral reef waters are incredibly efficient at taking up nutrients as soon as they become available as dead organisms or dissolved in the water column.
This means that all the nutrients in the coral reef ecosystem are locked up in the living organisms leaving the water nutrient poor and clear.
 clear water is important to allow light to penetrate to the corals so the zooxanthellae can photosynthesise.
Salinity
The salinity of between /ppm required by coral reefs restricts growth from areas with large freshwater inputs.
Temperature
The formation of highly consolidated reefs only occur where the temperature does not fall below 18°C for extended periods of time and many grow optimally in water temperatures between 23° and 29°C.
Waves
Waves bring in oxygenated water,
prevent sedimentation and
renew the planktonic food supply.
Reef development is usually greatest in areas subject to moderate wave action.
More effective management than is currently in place.
For more information see:

6. Zonation Zones are habitats within a reef;
Areas defined by complex associations between creatures and the environment;
Zones help better understand ecosystem dynamics and changes over time.
Coral reefs develop in patterns called zonation. Each zone, or habitat, within a reef contains complex associations between creatures and the environment.
Access to resources such as light, oxygen and food primarily determine these zones
Physical conditions such as depth bottom composition and wave action, change when moving from shore to deeper water thus creating these habitats within the reef
Each habitat has certain corals and other organisms that specialise in these conditions
There are more than a dozen different zones within coral reefs but the main zones are the back reef, reef crest and fore reef
Studying the differences between zones helps scientists better understand reef ecosystems dynamics. Defining zones also provides a method to track changes to reef systems over time.
Taken from the A.W.A.R.E Coral Reef Conservation Course

7. Natural disturbance: dynamic balance of coral reef ecosystems
Healthy coral dominated reef
Damaged reef
10-20 year recovery period
Acute natural impact here
Coral reefs are naturally subject to acute environmental disturbances, such as cyclones.
Reefs that are damaged by these physical disturbances will recover over a year period as rubble consolidates, new coral recruits settle and grow and other organisms are attracted.
Coral reefs naturally occur in any state of decline and recovery and these natural disturbances play an important role in shaping the ecosystem structure that we see
It is important that we understand how reefs change with time naturally in order that we can determine how human impacts affect them.
Natural impacts include physical disturbances, such as cyclones. These impacts tend to be ACUTE and coral reefs have adapted to recover from acute events.

8. Natural disturbance: dynamic balance of coral reef ecosystems
We can measure the health of a coral reef in terms of its resilience to impacts, such as, its ability to recover from disturbance.
We can measure this health by monitoring how they change over time.
Because a healthy coral reef will naturally decline and recover, we can’t conclude without a doubt that a declined reef is unhealthy from data of a single snap-shot in time. We can, however, measure the health of a coral reef in terms of its resilience to impacts, such as, its ability to recover after disturbance and continue with its natural cycle. We can measure this health by monitoring how coral reefs change over time.
As the disturbance – recovery regime of a coral reef is complex, the longer time-period for which we have monitoring data, the more disturbance - recovery patterns we can see and the better we will understand how coral reefs change with time.
Therefore, by monitoring the reef each year from now, we’ll be really helping scientists understand how our activities affect the reefs into the future.
It is important to understand how reefs change with time naturally in order that we can determine how human impacts affect them

9. A basic ecology lesson An ecosystem is like a jenga game.
Each block has a function to hold the system together.
Pull out too many blocks and the system will collapse…
Each organism in an ecosystem has a function.
The function of an organism within its ecosystem may include eating other organisms to keep their numbers low, or providing food to other organisms to keep their numbers up.
You can think of an ecosystem like your body – each of your organs has a function, without which, you would die. Your heart, for example, has the function of pumping blood around your body and your blood carries food and oxygen among other things to your body’s cells. We only have one heart, so we are in trouble if we lose it!
 In a natural ecosystem there tends to be functional redundancy. This means that there will be several different organisms that do the same job. In general, if we lose one of these organisms, there will be others to ensure the job gets done, so the ecosystem will still stay looking healthy.
If an ecosystem becomes unhealthy, it may collapse – this means its balance is upset and it no longer functions how it used to.
Each organism in an ecosystem has a function

10. Human impacts tend to be CHRONIC and leave no recovery period.
Threats to coral reefs
Overfishing;
Destructive fishing;
Sedimentation;
Pollution;
Global climate change.
Overfishing is a huge problem the world over, not just on coral reefs.
By taking out too many numbers of some species we risk changing the structure of the whole ecosystem so that our target species cannot recover their former numbers.
If this pattern of decline and failed management is left undressed, fishery outputs will be reduced into the future meaning loss of a source of food and economy for an increasing global population.
Destructive fishing dynamite and cyanide fishing and muro ami –this is often coupled with overfishing where these fishing practices are able to provide a good catch when fish abundance is too low for traditional methods for a viable cpue.– we could question whether trawling next to coral reefs could be termed destructive fishing…as lagoonal sandy bottoms are migration grounds for many fish that may start their life in mangrove or seagrass beds. - besides the damage thy do to this bioregion’s ecology!
Sedimentation – caused by trawling, dredging and land-clearing. This is believed to be an increasing problem on the GBR due to the land-clearing for cattle farms back in the 50s.
Pollution – sewage pollution is a huge problem in many tropical coastal areas – especially where tourism is growing
Global Climate Change – there is a need to understand how bleaching will affect reefs in order that we can protect those areas less likely to be struck and to understand what other threats we must stop to reduce the stress levels on corals. Knowledge of which species tend to bleach, their recovery rates and other impacts in the area can help managers to make decisions.
Human impacts tend to be CHRONIC and leave no recovery period.

11. Solutions to these problems…
In order to effectively manage a coral reef we must:
1. Determine what the problems are and where they are;
2. Put in place a management solution;
3. Monitor the effectiveness of the management.

12. Introduction to Reef Check

13. What is the health of the world’s coral reefs?
History
In 1993 at a Symposium in Miami a question was asked:
What is the health of the world’s coral reefs?
Science “as usual” failed to give answers because:
There are too few scientists who spend too little time on reefs;
Too few study sites;
Few long-term studies;
Emphasis on basic research;
Different questions and methods used in different areas meaning that we cannot compare data.

14. 1997 – Reef Check begins
Reef Check designed a global survey method for the International Year of the Reef. This protocol was:
Simple, Rapid, All volunteer;
Combined manpower of local communities with scientific experts;
‘Eco-holistic’ -- not just fish or coral;
Provides basic data on coral reef health;
This effort – primarily intended as a one-off effort was hugely successful with thousands of volunteer teams from over 30 tropical countries and territories got involved to determine the health of their local reefs.
The outcome was that reefs appear to be in very poor health.
Therefore the determination of some long-term goals were the next step.
Applicable anywhere in the world.
This 1997 survey effort revealed that coral reefs around the world were in very poor health!

15. What is Reef Check? Educate the public about the coral reef crisis;
Create a global network of volunteer teams, which regularly monitor and report on reef health;
Scientifically investigate coral reef processes;
• Facilitate collaboration among academia, NGOs, governments and the private sector;
1. if more people care and understand conservation issues, then there will be more support for management solutions and more community action.
3. By monitoring coral reef change and site use over time – we gain insight into how reefs respond to human impacts.
For long-term studies – the data gets more useful and interesting the longer it has been collected for!
That’s why we need to start now so that we can begin to build a better database of information
4. The collaboration of different institutions is important if we are to both utilise:
wide range of skills
help to spread the word of the coral reef crisis.
shift in thinking that we should take responsibility for our own actions and the resources we rely on instead of expecting the government to manage everything because we pay tax.
Over the last 10 years we have seen a shift in perspectives to be more green.
Think back when the CFC issue came out- it was socially unacceptable to use spray deodorant that contained CFC gases!
The best way to promote conservation action and enforcement with resource management regulations is for compliance to become a social norm.
The idea is that the model of environmental responsibility set by participants in this program will set an environmentally-based example to other industries and community members in contact with this program. Green marketing can be used to our advantage!
5. Likewise with the private sector – we want local community members to feel a sense of environmental responsibility. Reef Check offers a fun way for divers to take action.
Stimulate local community action to protect remaining pristine reefs and rehabilitate damaged reefs worldwide using ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions.

16. Who are the stakeholders involved?
Villagers/fisherfolk;
Tourist divers;
Local dive clubs;
Government agencies;
Local/regional NGO’s, conservation groups;
Other stakeholders.

17. Reef Check Strategy Management Reef Check Monitoring Education
Coral Reef Conservation

18. ! Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
Scientific (government) monitoring
Community (NGO) monitoring !
Expensive
But data intense
Inexpensive
Basic data only
Reef Check is the community based arm of the GCRMN. This two-tier approach is promoted by icri

19. Reef Check Global Network 1997-pre sent
1400 Reefs, 62 Countries and Territories

20. What type of data do we collect?
1) A description of each reef site based on over 30 measures of environmental conditions and expert rating of human impacts;
2) Shellfish counts along an 800 m 2 section of shallow reef;
3) Fish counts along an 4000 m 3 section of shallow reef;
4) A measure of the percentage of the seabed covered by different substrate types including live and dead coral;
1) Where possible we want to use existing data to fill out this form.
5) A video transect of the seabed.

21. Some Global Results
Percent hard coral cover was significantly higher on reefs having no human impacts than on those with high impacts;
Algal cover was higher on reefs rated as having high sewage inputs;
Zero grouper larger than 30 cm recorded at 48% of reefs surveyed – indicating overfishing;
Many marine protected areas are not working very well;
The 1997 – 1998 bleaching event reduced live coral cover by 10% globally, indicating that coral reefs are a sensitive indicator of global warming.

22. Management Successes
Soufriere, St Lucia -- Marine Management Authority uses RC to demonstrate the value of the marine protected area (MPA) for fish;
Gilutongan Island, Cebu, Philippines – local barrio decided to set up MPA after RC participation. Today most successful urban, no-take MPA in Philippines (Ross et al, 2000).

23. Education Successes
Recife, Brazil – local government decides to set up children’s reef education center after RC shows reef damage;
In collaboration with Friends of the Reef, RC Indo conducts art contest to educate school teachers and students in Bali.

24. Data Quality

25. Data quality
Unfortunately we have to account for different types of error when we compare results of surveys over time.
Minimizing error is important because the more error we have, the lower the resolution by which environmental change can be detected.
% cover hard coral
Annual survey results
Is the hard coral cover really changing or is this survey error?
In order to detect temporal environmental change we must compare the results of surveys over the years. The differences in data between years can then be attributed to change. If it were only that simple!! 
Unfortunately, we have to account for different types of error when we determine if our reefs have changed over time.
In order to determine by how much our reef has really changed, we need to quantify these sources of error. Put in simple terms, if, for example, the total error is 20%, then we can only conclude that our reefs have changed if our temporal data suggests more than a 20% difference.

26. Data quality: Sources of error
Technical errors from transect placement;
Perceptual errors;
Identification errors.
Technical and perceptual errors can be minimized by standardising the methods. Identification errors must be minimized by standardising training and testing!

27. Learning from the Past and Site Descriptions: Coral cover on Balicasag Island reef from 1984 to 1999
(Christie et al. 2002)

28. How do we ensure the data is of sufficient high quality to integrate it with official data sets?
standardise the identification training throughout Queensland;
‘Rock’ and ‘Recently Killed Coral’ are frequently confused by volunteers
The issue that has arisen with regards to using volunteer data in management is DATA QUALITY.
Because our aim is to compliment current government data sets, we want the data to be used by the management authority, namely the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
To ensure the collection of high quality data from all volunteers, we need to standardise the training and data collection process throughout Queensland and test volunteers to both demonstrate and ensure the maintenance of this high standard.
A study on training needs of volunteers in Queensland indicated that a number of Reef Check categories including Rock and recently killed coral needed more comprehensive definition to increase the precision of volunteer data.
The provision of multiple photographic examples is one way we identified to reduce this problem.
test participants.

29. What happens to our data?
Sent to Reef Check Headquarters where it is integrated with the global database;
Sent to The World Fish Centre’s ReefBase;
Used for global, regional and national annual reports and publications
Data will be made available to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
This report will focus on our highest quality data, that is, data produced by volunteers who score high marks in tests. Less reliable data will be summarised and made available with this report;

30. What are the objectives of participants?
To be able to identify all of the target organisms to 80-95%* precision whilst following exactly AND SAFELY the Reef Check methods using SCUBA**;
To understand the importance of precise data collection and how this data can be used by scientists and managers for coral reef conservation;
To understand the use and limitations to the data that is collected using Reef Check;
Gain an understanding of the threats facing coral reefs and solutions to these problems;
To have fun!!
*the level required for a particular Reef Check training event will depend upon the Reef Check organisers;
**snorkel teams may also be accommodated for shallow reef areas.

31. Team Tasks

32. Who must every Reef Check team include?
Team Scientist;
Team Leader;
Equipment Cop.
The Team Scientist (TS) must be a marine scientist with a minimum of a Masters degree that included a research component and experience with coral reef monitoring to include Reef Check. A Trainee TS may be completing a marine science degree and follow the supervision of an experienced TS.
The Team Leader (TL) must be a minimum of a Divemaster but we prefer SCUBA Instructors. It is the main responsibility of the TL to ensure that all activities are carried out SAFELY. For Reef Check the data is important but SAFETY IS OUR TOP PRIORITY!
The EC is responsible for the equipment. If the EC is not a videographer, then the responsibility of the video camera must go to the videographer, however, the EC remains responsible for ensuring the effective delegation of this task.

33. What is the role of the Team Scientist?
Site selection;
Delegation of survey tasks;
Survey briefing prior to dive;
Ensure proper identifications and data recording are made underwater
Data sheet collection and filing;
Site selection
Prior to trip the TS confirm which dive sites are to be visited and determine the position of the reef to be surveyed.
If a re-survey is to be carried out, the same reef habitat must be surveyed. For example, back reef, lagoon, front reef. Maps of dive sites to include habitat delimitations will be available from the coordinator.
Task delegation
delegating tasks to the team. The order of tasks allocated will depend upon the number of team members and time available to complete the survey.
Survey briefing
We advised that the TS request each team member repeats their role out loud to the team.
Data sheet collection
All data sheets must be collected following a survey and filed in the data sheet book. All data sheets must have the site name, date and data collector on the top of them! The TS is responsible for keeping data sheets safe until the data is entered.
Data entry
The TS must organise volunteers to meet and enter data AS SOON AS POSSIBLE following the survey. Once entered, data must be checked for errors by the TS, the sheets printed out, hard copies filed (sent to coordinator) and a back up of the electronic data made and sent to the coordinator. One copy of the data must be sent by to avoid losing hard copies or discs.
Data analysis
The TS must organise the volunteers to meet, made graphs of the data and write a data summary, which will be presented to the volunteer group and included in the annual report. All graphs and summaries must follow the format guidelines provided.
Organisation of data entry, filing and notification of data entered to coordinator;
Organise data analysis and summary.

34. What is the role of the Team Leader?
Confirm dive trip dates and arrangements;
Confirm team availability;
Field day organisation;
Complete field log;
Organisation of media releases;
Confirm dive trip dates, available spaces with dive operators
call the dive operator a week and a day in advance of the trip - diving plans can change last minute due to weather and operators may feel pressured to cancel our trip if they get many requests from paying passengers.
Confirm team availability remind the team to bring cert cards.
Field day organisation liase with the dive crew on board the boat to determine how they want the team to organise themselves.
 Complete field log Note who turns up plus provide a brief description of the day for a media release. Include any special sightings or interesting stories about the day.
Organisation of media release
Contact our Media Liaison Officer with the field log. This should include details, such as dive operation used, location, reefs visited.
Dive safety
responsible for ensuring the team dive safely and that the safety procedures are followed. Prior to the first dive the TL must lead the completion of the safety information forms and is responsible for filing these forms with the data at the end of the day:
Thank dive operator post-survey within 3 days of survey
Dive safety;

35. What is the role of the Equipment Cop?
Pre and post-survey equipment check;
Bring the equipment to the survey.
Pre and Post-survey equipment check
The Reef Check box must contain all the necessary equipment and this must be CLEAN and READY TO USE.
This means that slates must be clean, survey sheets attached to slates and pencils sharpened. The box inventory sheet must be used for this task to ensure nothing is forgotten. The inventory sheet must be completed post-survey to ensure all the equipment is retrieved from volunteers and that slates are cleaned, pencils sharpened and any other equipment that needs replacing is replaced. Tape measures and the camera (in the housing!!!) must be rinsed following a dive.
Bring equipment to survey
The EC is responsible for bringing equipment to the survey and getting it to the equipment cop for the next survey.

36. The Methods: The Planning Stage

37. The Survey Equipment 100 m transect line;
Underwater slate for each team member;
Pencil;
Spare pencil!!
Underwater ID guides;
GPS or detailed chart (or access to one);
We also encourage volunteers to bring their cameras to document the event. It is the role of the Equipment Cop to ensure the team has all the equipment ready to go for the survey.
Plumb line;
Marker and “safety” buoys / surface tenders;
Underwater cameras (if available).

38. The Transect
20m 5m 1 2 3 4
100m
The 100m line is used to mark out the transect position. The 100m is surveyed in four 20m sections that are separated from each other by 5m. Data from each section is recorded separately so that we can compare information from both between the sections of this transect (called replicates) as well as between sites
This line must be marked so that the 0.5m, 5m and 20m marks can be identified from one another. The reasons behind this will become clear when we have a look at how to do the surveys.
use is 2 x 50m fibreglass tape measures. This is to give some flexibility as to where our 4 replicate 20m transects can be placed. Reefs may not conveniently stretch for 100m without gullies where 4 x 20m transects can be placed consecutively! Reef Check Australia advise that 3 x 50m tape measures are taken down in case we need to split the 4 x 20m transect sections up between 3 tapes. This will become clear later…
Surface marker buoys can be used to mark the start and end points of the transects on the surface. These buoys can also function to let other boats know where the divers as well as essential for mapping the transect position from the surface by using GPS point and compass bearings between buoys and land markers. If no GPS is available, then detailed charts must be consulted in order to identify the latitude and longitude.
If possible, the start, mid and end points of the transect should be permanently marked with metal stakes to ensure that successive transects are deployed in the same place. For the Great Barrier Reef project we are short on time in the area and could risk wasting precious survey time trying to find the permanent transects. Therefore, we simply draw a map of where the transect was positioned and ensure that successive surveys are within the same habitat area and depth on the reef. This is a form of stratified random sampling.
We aim to set up a number of permanent transects as resources become available during this project.
The basic idea of the Reef Check protocol is to swim along a 100m line and count!

39. It is important that team members know EXACTLY what they are to do.
Planning the survey
It is important that team members know EXACTLY what they are to do.
Trying to communicate underwater can sometimes be difficult and we are working under the clock!
Planning the survey is probably one of the most important parts of Reef Check. A detailed plan of allocated tasks, pre-marked slates, agreed dive plan and agreed underwater signals is essential for a smoothly run survey.
 If there is any question about the quality of the data it will not be included in the report.
 In Australia we have standards additional to those provided by Reef Check Headquarters as explained in a previous section. Because each Reef Check team will comprise of different people with a different array of skills it is best to be flexible with how the tasks are allocated across the team and these allocations should reflect team member’s skill and experience level. For example, a volunteer may be an excellent videographer, but may not have passed the identification tests…
 A Reef Check team will usually comprise of between 4 and 6 divers depending on the experience of the team, the time available at the survey site and the number of available volunteers.
 It is important to remember that working underwater is challenging and having too many jobs can sacrifice the quality of the data collected.
Remember that the plan must include the safety considerations identified in the hazard assessment.

40. Site selection Critical for the success of Reef Check!
Must be selected by an experience Reef Check Scientist;
Re-surveys must be implemented at the same site in the same habitat!
New sites would ideally be on a moderately to fully exposed reef with a reef crest and outer slope being ideal.
Select the “best” reef areas for surveys
The same habitat at a particular site must be selected for a re-survey – otherwise we cannot compare the data between years!
Although we should try to survey ideal sites – such as outer slopes – we must account for logistics and seeing that we have a free ride to the reef with dive operators – we’ll survey the back reefs to start with. As this program grows and more funding comes our way we may be in a position to be more choosy!
Steep reef walls or drop-offs, reefs predominantly located in caves or underhangs should be avoided.

41. The Survey Methods

42. Survey tasks Initial site orientation survey (all divers)
Lay the transect line (1 - 2 divers);
Substrate survey (1 - 2 divers);
Invertebrate/impact survey (1 - 2 divers);
Retrieve the transect line (1 – 2 divers);
Optional “safety” buddy and surface tender
It is essential to remember that team members must remain in buddy pairs AT ALL TIMES because SAFETY MUST COME FIRST! Therefore, the dive plan must be created in order to achieve the aims of the survey as well as those of safe diving.
Divers can have more than one task. However, be wary that task overload can occur if too much is expected of one person. For example, it is feasible to ask one diver to do one of the data collection surveys followed by tape collection, but less sensible to expect a diver to lay the line whilst carrying the video and surface marker buoys.

43. Before you jump into the water…
Record the GPS location;
Record the name of the TS or TL on the data sheet;
Start to fill out the site description form.
The Site form below outlines the information we collect on each site. The information on impacts will only be collated once a year and will be obtained by the PI from government data sources that include the Department of Primary Industry’s fishery catch database as well as using water quality information obtained from the Water Quality Department at GBRMPA.
Divers should go over the dive plan before anyone enters the water in order to ensure that everyone knows what they should be doing and when.

44. See your manual for a copy of this form.

45. Line deployment Reef Check typically surveys 2 depths: Between 2-6m
A snorkel survey over the site can help determine its eligibility for a Reef Check survey;
The TS or experienced Reef Checkers will typically lay the transect line because care must be taken not to damage the reef.

46. As previously noted, on some reefs it will not be possible to follow one depth contour with the 100m line. If there are spurs or ridges, follow these instead. If there are patch reefs it might be better to use 4 x 20m lines as long as the distances between each section is 5m or more. In such cases it is especially important to obtain a detailed map of where the transects are if the survey is to be repeated in the future
When choosing where to start the transect it is important to check that there is sufficient distance for the 100m line as well as consideration of finding a feature that can be easily found again if a permanent transect is to be set up. This might be a rock formation or massive coral bommie. A quick snorkel around the area is a good way of getting a snapshot of the reef characteristics to help in site selection or to help in identifying the habitat where a previous survey was done.

47. The substrate survey
The aim is to collect % cover estimates of various substrates and benthic organisms;
A point sampling method is used every 50cm;
Plumb line must be used to remove bias;
This survey typically takes 30 mins to 1 hour to complete.
The aim of the substrate survey is to collect information on the percentage cover of various benthic organisms and substrates on the reef. A “point sampling” method is used for this survey. This is the least ambiguous and fastest method and is easily learned by recreational divers. This team record the substrate type every 0.5m along each of the four 20m sections. The completion time is estimated at between 30 minutes and 1 hour.
Because of the complex topography of a reef, there may be some distance between the transect line and the substrata below. To ensure that bias is removed and the exact point below the tape is surveyed, a plumb line must be used. This plumb line can be a fishing sinker or bolt tied to a piece of nylon or cotton string.
The tasks for this survey include dropping the plumb line and writing on the slate. It is helpful if these 2 tasks are divided between the 2 divers. For experienced and small teams, one person could do the substrate survey and the other buddy draw a map of where the transect lies.

48. An example of this form is in your manual

49. Invert and impact survey
This is a 5m wide belt transect. We use the same 4 x 20m long transects, but survey 2.5m either side of the tape;
The goal of this survey is to count the target mobile invertebrates and note any coral damage, such as, bleaching, Crown of Thorns Starfish, anchor damage or trash;
The upside down pose is the easiest position to search and write;
Familiarising yourself with the typical hiding places of the invertebrates before doing a Reef Check survey will increase your accuracy.
A regular U-shaped search pattern ensures a comprehensive coverage of the belt transect;
This survey takes between 30 mins and 1 hour to complete.

50. Fish survey Same 5m wide belt transect but it is also 5m HIGH;
The fish survey is the first survey to be done;
The ideal survey time is between and 10.00;
Completion time is approximately 1 hour;
The team must wait 15mins after the line is deployed before entering the water;
Divers must make slow and careful movements;
Concentrate on buoyancy;
The fish team are the first in the water. The ideal time to start this survey is between 9 and 10am and it will take about 1 hour to complete.
There are 2 ways to do this survey. The first is to deploy the line at the same time as doing the fish survey, and the other and preferred method, is to have the line deployed before the fish team begin as described in the previous section. The advantages of doing the fish survey at the same time as line deployment is that there is less disturbance of fish and it can function to considerably reduce the time required for a Reef Check survey if this is a constricting factor. This is because the team need not wait 3 minutes every 5m and that line deployment can be integrated with the first survey. Disadvantages include a lack of control of where the line goes, so there is less accuracy when trying to follow the reef contour.
1.       If the line is to be deployed at the same time you could have one person laying the line, ensuring that it follows the reef contour and does not lay too high off the reef; whilst the other person collects the fish data. Another method is to use a cave-line, which can be attached behind the diver. The advantages of this is that both the divers can collect the data as this is a ‘hands free’ method, however, it does not leave the opportunity for anyone to check for snags.
2.      If the line is to be deployed first, the fish team should wait 15 minutes after the line has been laid in order to let the fish settle down and come out of hiding. On entering the water, this pair should swim straight to the start of the transect, wait for 3 minutes to let the fish settle down, then proceed with the survey. It is important to make slow, definite movements to avoid alarming the fish so that they hide or leave the transect area. It is essential that the fish team have good buoyancy control.
The fish survey is a belt transect tunnel that is 5m wide and 5m high. There are a number of ways of going about this survey:
One of the buddy pairs can take the right side of the transect and the other takes the left. Alternatively, to avoid the problem of each of the pair counting the same fish as it swims across the line, the pair can take in turns to survey each of the four whole 5m wide 20 sections. Note that alternating between the 20m sections will take more time as, for safety reasons, the buddy pair must remain together.
The dimensions of the transect tunnel is to be judged by the divers although the use of cross lines running 2.5m either side of the line can be helpful. Another method is to carry a 2.5m long PVC pole from which to judge the distance, however, this can be a challenge to carry as well as writing on a slate, especially in a current!
Remembering that the four 20m sections must be recorded separately, the fish people must swim slowly and count the target fish for the first 5m of the belt transect. Reaching 5m they must stop again for 3 minutes.
Fish unfortunately have a rather annoying habit of swimming across the transect. It is important that individuals are not counted twice. This does require a degree of coordination with you and your buddy. Make sure you keep an eye on each other and signal when you have counted a fish that is heading towards the other side of the transect. It is also important to only count the fish that are in the transect tunnel. However, off-transect records of the Humphead wrasse and Bumphead parrotfish will be accepted as these species roam near reefs at this size rather than strictly resident species. A note should be made of any sightings of what are now becoming rarer animals such as large manta rays, sharks and turtles, but if these are off-transect records, they should be written at the bottom of the slate under “comments”.
Size estimations are required for parrotfish where only individuals over 20cm are recorded and grouper where only individuals over 30cm plus an estimation of their size is recorded. Size estimation can be tricky underwater because you have to take account for the magnification effects. It is important for the fish team to have practiced size estimations prior to doing a Reef Check survey. This can be done by guessing the length of a series of plastic fish or sticks underwater.
Coordinate counts with your buddy to avoid double counting;
Only count fish in the tunnel except for the Humphead wrasse and Bumphead parrotfish or mega fauna.

52. Post-Dive Tasks Data entry; Media release; Thank-yous to supporters;
See TL, TS and EC roles…..

53. Daghang Salamat!!!
Special thanks to Jos Hill PhD of Reef Check Australia for providing key parts of this presentation.