The public can now look at the condition of coral reefs for themselves. The report shows that populations of corals and fishes on the coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area change from year to year. Populations are increasing in as many areas as they are decreasing. Just as forests on land decline because of forest fires and droughts, but then recover, so the coral gardens of the Great Barrier Reef also change. Cyclones, starfish outbreaks, changes in sea water temperature, and other natural events may cause losses of coral, but reefs often recover in a period of years.
Monitoring changes on the Great Barrier Reef is an enormous task.
The number of fish species on the reef is probably ten times the 191 species counted by the reef monitoring program. Yet coral reefs depend for their survival on human understanding of this fragile ecosystem. Careful and well-planned ongoing research by the Long Term Monitoring Program is the first serious attempt to record the condition of reefs across the Great Barrier Reef province. A team of five scientists spends more than 100 days at sea each year. They survey 36 kilometres of line transects, and record 60 hours of video tapes, making the program the largest of its kind in the world.