CoralWatch Coral Health Chart Distinctive Specialty Course

CoralWatch is a non-profit organization, built on a research project at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

The aim is to provide hands-on monitoring and education tools to increase awareness of reef threats and encourage behaviour change towards a sustainable, low-carbon future.

The main research tool is the Coral Health Chart. This Chart is basically a series of sample colours, with variation in brightness representing different stages of bleaching/recovery, based on controlled experiments. It is an inexpensive, simple, non-invasive method for the monitoring of coral bleaching and assessment of coral health. In the field, users simply compare colours of corals with colours on the chart and record matching codes. With the help of the Health Charts, anyone in the world can monitor the health of any reef across the globe.

For further information visit www.coralwatch.org

Prerequisites: To take the CoralWatch Coral Health Chart Specialty course, you must be a PADI certified diver (or qualifying certification from another training organization).