Marine Monitoring Program

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program (MMP) is focused on the inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It reports on the condition of inshore water quality, coral and seagrass habitats. The MMP informs managers and the wider community about the annual health of these ecosystems, particularly in relation to nutrients and sediments associated with land-based runoff. 

The MMP provides the Reef component of the Paddock to Reef Program, and is a foundational long-term monitoring program, established in 2005. The MMP is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in partnership with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, James Cook University (TropWATER), the Cape York Water Partnership and the University of Queensland.

The MMP Dashboard presents results of monitoring activities that assess:

• In-situ water quality: Condition and trend of inshore water quality. Water quality condition is summarised in two separate indices:
  
  1. annual index, which reflects the current condition of water quality;
  2. long-term index, which measures long-term trends, and is insensitive to yearly variations in water quality
• Floods: The magnitude, extent and duration of flood plumes, particularly following extreme events such as heavy rainfall and cyclones.
• Pesticides: Risks to the Reef from pesticides and pesticide mixtures at routine monitoring sites, summarised in a pesticide risk metric.
• Coral condition: Condition and trend of inshore coral reefs are measured through assessment of coral cover, macroalgae cover, juvenile coral density, coral cover change, and coral community composition, which are summarised as the coral condition index.
• Seagrass condition: Condition and trend of inshore seagrass meadows are measured through seagrass abundance and resilience, which are summarised as the seagrass condition index.