Derelict Fishing Line and Benthic Cover on Great Barrier Reef Fringing Reefs, 2007-2009

NERP TE 8.2 data from JCU provides site means for derelict fishing line density, benthic cover percentages, and line accumulation rates on fringing reefs of the Keppel, Whitsunday, and Palm Island groups. The dataset was collected via underwater visual census surveys at 94 sites in 2009, with volunteer line removal and re-accumulation monitoring at ten Palm Island sites starting in 2007. It is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling fishing effort as a proxy based on derelict line density and accumulation rates mentioned in the description.
• Assessing zoning compliance by comparing line density between NTMR and non-NTMR reef sites.
• Analyzing benthic community composition based on percent cover of hard corals, soft corals, algae, and substrate categories.
• Monitoring temporal changes in reef health and debris accumulation between 2007 and 2009.

Strengths

• Data collection follows a standardized underwater visual census method with five 300 m² replicate transects per site.
• Surveys cover 94 sites across three island groups with balanced sampling between no-take marine reserves (NTMR) and areas open to fishing.
• Includes temporal monitoring of line re-accumulation at ten sites following a removal experiment in 2007.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on three specific island groups within the Great Barrier Reef.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (host), likely originating from James Cook University (JCU) as part of NERP TE 8.2.

Collection Method

Underwater visual census (UVC) using 50 m x 6 m transects and line intercept surveys for benthic categories. Volunteer divers from Reef Check Australia conducted line removal.

Time Range

2007 to 2009

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 17:13:03.500760; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Fringing coral reefs of the Keppel, Whitsunday, and Palm Island groups within the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.