What I learned on a citizen science cruise along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
https://58.ca/data/attachment/images/TravelWorld/jzwo3nrizl4.jpg
One of the Ribbon Reefs, a series of long, narrow reefs noted for their marine life and coral formations. By Richard Woodgett Coral Expeditio
Of all the places I’ve been as a travel journalist, this is perhaps the unlikeliest: I’m watching waves crash outside my cabin as the Coral Discoverer charts its course northward through Queensland’s tropical waters. On the horizon, mountainous islands covered in eucalyptus forests tumble down to where empty white beaches meet the sea.
I once swore I’d never set foot on a cruise ship’s deck. Besides a general apathy for crowded ocean liners, I was skeptical of the cruise industry and put off by its poor environmental, social and human rights track record.
But the invitation for Coral Expeditions’ 10-day voyage from Brisbane to Cairns was one I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t just that I’d be travelling on an expedition vessel, with room for only 72 passengers, a far cry from the average cruise ship’s capacity of 3,000. Nor was it the mere lure of adventure: We’d be tracing nearly the entire length of the 2,300-kilometre Great Barrier Reef, from its southern coral cays near the Fraser Coast to its isolated Ribbon Reefs off Cape York.
https://58.ca/data/attachment/images/TravelWorld/awp1zoglglf.jpg
One of the Ribbon Reefs, a series of long, narrow reefs noted for their marine life and coral formations.
By Coral Expeditions
Instead, what caught my attention most were the activities, namely the chance to contribute to research and reef restoration projects en route. Stops included Bundaberg, where we’d visit a coral nursery, and Fitzroy Island, where we’d volunteer at a sea turtle rehabilitation centre. Along the way, we’d also have the chance to survey the health of coral using citizen science apps.
An Australia-based company specializing in small-ship cruises on the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Expeditions launched this citizen science-themed itinerary three years ago. It’s just one of the numerous for-purpose departures setting sail around the globe.
Aurora Expeditions’ newest ship, the Douglas Mawson, for example, will feature a citizen science centre when it hits the water in 2025. On Hurtigruten’s boats, passengers can collect water samples in Antarctica to help study the effects of climate change on phytoplankton, or report aurora sightings. Viking recently launched two expedition vessels, Polaris and Octantis, where cruisers can join on-board scientists as they launch weather balloons or analyze water samples in the boats’ dedicated labs.
Talks from on-board and local guest lecturers typically round out the experience. When we stop on Lady Elliot Island — a hot spot for massive manta rays — we’re joined by Asia Haines, a researcher with Project Manta. Beneath a whale skeleton in the island’s education centre, Haines shares everything manta: how they breed (up to 30 males follow females in a courtship train); how they’re IDed (each has a spot pattern as unique as a fingerprint); and how Lady Elliot’s hot pink manta ray — which made global news when spotted in 2015 — is real.
Then she delivers the most mind-blowing fact of all: “Everything I just told you about mantas are things we learned just from citizen science,” says Haines.
https://58.ca/data/attachment/images/TravelWorld/2ejpv0wzv0c.jpg
Marine species in the incredibly biodiverse Great Barrier Reef include manta rays.
By Coral Expeditions
For marine scientists, collecting samples and data at an ocean scale is an impossible task. On the Great Barrier Reef, this means that only roughly 100 of the 3,000 individual reefs are regularly monitored. Tourism operators, including cruise ships, help fill the gaps by delivering thousands of potential observers into often remote waters.
When I jump in the water the next day — with a waterproof paper survey and camera in hand — it’s with a sense of purpose. It’s only been two months since Cyclone Jasper caused destruction to the reef. And the fifth major coral bleaching event in eight years is underway. We’re visiting when widespread observations about the reef’s health are crucially needed.
But as I flounder to swim with a clipboard, reality sets in. While the stark white bleached coral (which still has a chance of recovering) is easy to identify, it’s difficult to discern what’s dead, dying or in active recovery.
Back on the boat, my fellow citizen scientists seem less concerned with our collective lack of data-gathering abilities and more interested in what’s for lunch. They seem, quite frankly, like people on holiday.
https://58.ca/data/attachment/images/TravelWorld/zxelpeui3gg.jpg
The Coral Discoverer launched its citizen science-themed cruise on the Great Barrier Reef three years ago.
By Coral Expeditions
This is exactly what led to the downfall of Carnival Corp.’s voluntourism cruise brand, Fathom. Setting sail in 2016, it was an industry pioneer, offering shore excursions like teaching English in Cuba and helping at chocolate co-ops in the Dominican Republic. Within less than a year, however, the company pulled the plug.
“The short life of Fathom shows cruisers mostly just want to cruise,” reported the travel trade publication Skift.
Not much has changed since then. The Cruise Lines International Association predicts that this year alone, a record-breaking 35.7 million people will take a cruise. And if the popularity of Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas — the world’s largest cruise ship, with a max capacity of 7,600 passengers — is any indication, it’s unlikely that the demand for small specialty expedition cruises will rival megaships any time soon.
“People are (still) going for that ‘as-much-as-I-can-eat-I’m-on-holidays’ hedonistic experience,” says sustainable tourism expert Rachel Dodds, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Dodds also questions the ability of the average tourist to contribute to research with scientific rigour, but even so, she argues that just providing the opportunity has a positive effect: “We only move people along the sustainability agenda when they’re motivated by hope rather than fear,” she says.
When bona fide experts are involved, cruise ships have the potential to have very real impact. By visiting the same destinations within seasons and across years, they can help track changes over time — including the impacts from tourism itself.
That’s why some companies are now prioritizing space for researchers on-board. Adventure Canada, which sails through the Arctic, offers a researchers-in-residence program, while Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first hybrid-electric polar exploration ship, has two research labs. Coral Expeditions has also partnered with marine biologists, who have used past cruises to collect rare wildlife specimens, like species of hard coral for Cairns’ Forever Reef Project biobank.
On my final day at sea, I watch as Katie Tuesley, a member of the boat’s expedition staff, prepares a stack of reports for Eye on the Reef, a government-funded monitoring initiative. All week, she’s been capturing evidence of the devastation and hope below.
https://58.ca/data/attachment/images/TravelWorld/jzwo3nrizl4.jpg
One of the Ribbon Reefs, a series of long, narrow reefs noted for their marine life and coral formations.
By Richard Woodgett Coral Expeditio
By definition, Tuesley is a citizen scientist, but she’s trained to interpret the reef’s health as one of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s master reef guides. Her reports are among the more than 15,000 that will be submitted by tourism operators during the 2024 coral bleaching event, helping the marine park authority continue its long-term monitoring and management.
If our journey is what’s making Tuesley’s work possible, then I’m on-board. Maybe I’ve been missing the point. After all, it’s called “pleasure” cruising for a reason.
So, for our last snorkel at the remote Ribbon Reef No. 3, I leave my clipboard and concerns in my cabin. As I watch tiny fish dart around a blue sea anemone waving gently in the current, there’s only one question on my mind: What’s for lunch?
Jessica Wynne Lockhart travelled as a guest of Coral Expeditions and Tourism Tropical North Queensland, which did not review or approve this article.
来源链接：
https://www.toronto.com/things-to-do/travel/what-i-learned-on-a-citizen-science-cruise-along-australia-s-great-barrier-reef/article_4729fe28-3216-590f-aed1-4666e480797f.html
页:
[1]