Coral Sea Marine Park environmental assessment of islands, islets and cays of the southern and central reef systems, 2023

Summary

In May/June 2023, Parks Australia undertook a 14-day voyage in the Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP), to assess the health of islands, islets and cays in the southern, eastern and central regions of the CSMP.

The cays visited and assessed were: Herald Beacon Islet (Mellish Reef), North Cay (Mellish Reef), East Diamond Islet (Tregrosse Reefs), South Islet (Willis Islets), North East Cay (Herald Cays), Chilcott Islet (Coringa Islets) and Magdelaine Cay South (Magdelaine Cays).

Staff from Parks Australia, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QPWS), Tangaroa Blue Foundation, and botanist volunteers performed the following tasks:

• description and mapping of vegetation communities
• establishing permanent vegetation health monitoring sites
• compiling comprehensive plant species lists
• collecting soil and plant samples
• obtaining high resolution drone photogrammetry of cays and their adjoining reefs
• collecting data on bird breeding, population demographics and species diversity
• surveying for introduced and invasive species
• removing marine debris and recording source data
• understanding of island and cay geomorphology.