Download - ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Media CoverageCommunicating research to diverse audiencesOnce they leave high-school, mostAustralians rely heavily on the mediaand the internet for life-long learningof science and technology. A scarythought, perhaps, but also a challengeand an opportunity for scientists to bettercommunicate their fi ndings.The ARC Centre of Excellence for CoralReef Studies was established in 2005to conduct research on the sciencethat underpins the sustainabilityof goods and services provided bycoral reef ecosystems. “The awardof an ARC Centre of Excellenceallowed us to develop a robust mediastrategy, which has increased ouroutreach enormously,” Centre DirectorProfessor Terry Hughes says.“The smartest thing we did was investat the outset in the services of aprofessional media consultant. He worksclosely with us to craft fortnightly pressreleases, converting our sometimes nerdyscience into everyday language andpropagating them to a huge audience.These releases generated 736 mediastories – two a day – in 2006.”“Our new website has developed rapidlyduring our fi rst full year operation, andis running now at well over a millionhits per annum, with 85% coming fromoverseas. About a quarter of the hitsare generated by the fortnightly pressreleases that highlight our researchfi ndings.”“Coral reef researchers do have a naturaladvantage, because our work is topicaland often visually stunning. In the pastthough, we usually only responded moreor-lesspassively to media enquiries.Now, we have deliberately set out toharness the media by creating our ownnews stories, to build public awarenessof their investment in coral reef science”,says Professor Hughes.One recent example from February 2007was a press release entitled “Fish:Healthcare workers of the Reef”. It wasbased on a large-scale fi eld experimentwhich showed that a healthy fi shpopulation is essential for coral recoveryafter a severe bleaching event, stormor disease outbreak. “We followed therecovery of corals that had been severelydamaged by bleaching due to globalwarming. The corals were on a reefwhere fi sh populations were unusuallyintact due to the Great Barrier ReefMarine Park Authority’s no-take policy.We fenced the fi sh out of some areas,and compared coral recovery with andwithout lots of fi sh.”“The result was dramatic. The coralcover virtually doubled where the fi shhad access, while the fenced-off areasbecame overgrown with seaweedand the corals failed to recover.”The research team concluded thathaving intact fi sh populations will bevital to successfully managing theresilience of tropical coral reefs fromthe impacts of climate change andhuman activity. “We can’t prevent futurebleaching except through internationalaction on greenhouse gas emissions,”said co-author Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, and Deputy Director of theARC Centre. “In the meantime, it’simportant to do whatever we canto minimize the damage and assistreefs through these diffi cult times.”This research was reported on ABC, inNew Scientist, on the Discovery Channel,Taiwan News, the New York Sun, theSan Francisco Chronical, the WashingtonPost, and over 40 other outlets.Fellow author and Research andMonitoring Manager with the GreatBarrier Reef Marine Park Authority, DrLaurence McCook, said the researchprovided valuable information for theprotection of the Great Barrier Reef.“Publicising research fi ndings likethis helps the public to appreciatethe measures needed to protect coralreefs, and to understand why it issometimes necessary to close areasof reef to fi shing. This builds publicsupport for best-practice managementand for the science that underpinsit”, says Professor Hughes.Sustainability of coral reef resourcesis vital for economies and societies intropical maritime countries worldwide. InAustralia alone the Great Barrier Reef isvalued at over $5 billion a year, employs68,000 people and is a celebratedcultural icon. The ARC Centre currentlyprovides support and supervision to 114research students from 29 countries,making it a global leader in the provisionof graduate training in coral reef studies.Led by James Cook University, theARC Centre of Excellence for CoralReef Studies is a partnership withthe University of Queensland, TheAustralian National University,The Australian Institute of MarineScience, CSIRO, and the Great BarrierReef Marine Park Authority.38