Reef And Rivers Podcast

Award winning banana growers Steve and Richelle Lizzio grow bananas in Mission Beach on one of the closest banana farms to the Great Barrier Reef. Their business is a great example of what's been achieved in the banana industry since environmental management guidelines were introduced. 

Dr Matt Curnock is a senior research scientist at CSIRO in Townsville. His work in social and environmental science is focused on understanding how people perceive, value and interact with the Great Barrier Reef.  Given that 'managing the environment is actually about managing people', social science offers insights into reef programs and policies. 

Travis Sydes managing natural resources in Far North Queensland as part of FNQROC, which represents 10 local governments across the region. In this podcast he talks about biosecurity issues in the Wet Tropics with a particular focus on Amazon frogbit, an aquarium plant that is infesting local waterways. 

Geoff McClure is one of hundreds of conservation volunteers who have helped transform Cattana Wetlands in the north of Cairns into an environmental park. In this podcast he talks about his love of conservation and the work that has gone into restoring the biodiversity hotspot at Cattana.  

Zoologist Dr Barbara Wueringer talks about her work with the fascinating sawfish her research of and how trawling through old newspaper clippings from the Gold Rush era helped to understand more about its historic distribution before gill nets and trophy fishing decimated it's populations.

Fisheries ecologist Matt Moore from Catchment Solutions talks about why fish habitat connectivity within waterways is so important and how decisions made to fix fish barriers such as weirs and dams. 

Sam Bastounas is the CEO of Pacific Bio, an Australian company that develops green technology to address water quality and food security issues. In this podcast, Sam discusses the challenge of purifying water and the development of RegenAqua, a new technology developed with JCU that uses seaweed to strip nutrients from water before it enters waterways. 

Heidi Tait is the founder and Managing Director of Tangaroa Blue, a not for profit organisation focused on removing and preventing marine debris. In this podcast, Heidi talks about the problem of litter in our oceans and the importance of going beyond beach clean ups to tackle debris at its source.  

This is the 9th annual Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card to be released by Wet Tropics Waterways to assess the health and condition of freshwater basins, estuaries, inshore and offshore areas of the Wet Tropics in Far North Queensland.  Independent Chair Phil Laycock explains some of the key findings in 2024.

Micro invertebrates are tiny creatures that are invisible to the naked eye but form the basis of the food web in our waterways. Dr. Robert Walsh talks about the importance and diversity of microfauna for sustaining aquatic systems and reveals that their eggs can remain viable for up to 400-500 years, meaning that extinct species could come alive again if water is added!      

Australia loves its prawns so much that Queensland's aquaculture industry produces more than $200M of produce of each year, but is it sustainable? Kim Hooper, Executive Officer of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association, talks about the industry, how it works and how it minimises its impact on local waterways.     

Millions of tourists come to north Queensland each year to experience the natural wonder of the Great Barrier Reef. This influx of people from around the world represents a n opportunity to educate and inform people about the complexity of the reef system and the threats that it faces.     In this week's Reef & Rivers podcast, Gareth  Phillips , CEO of the Australian Marine Park Tourism Operators,...

Seagrass meadows play a critically important role in the reef ecosystem. They are nursery habitat for fish and prawns, they stabilise sediment and protect coastlines from erosion, they suck up and filter nutrients coming down from rivers into the reef lagoon, they absorb carbon and also help buffer the reef from pathogens and diseases.  Associate Professor at JCU Mike Rasheed shares some of his kn...

The Great Barrier Reef is about the size of Japan or Italy and there are millions of dollars being invested in improving the runoff of water flowing off the land. How do we know if these reef projects are actually working?  Fiona Barron is the coordinator of the Paddock to Reef Program in the Wet Tropics, which tracks progress against targets in Australia's Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan...

Professor Mark Kennard discovered the Bloomfield River Cod in the early 90's whilst undertaking fish surveys as a research assistant. It is the only tropical cod in the world that has avoided predators by living in an 11 kms stretch of the Bloomfield River between two waterfalls.  

Did you know that seagrass is the only plant in the world that is capable of fruiting and flowering underwater? This is just one of many fascinating facts shared by Dr. Samantha Tol in this week's Reef & Rivers podcast. Samantha is a researcher at JCU and well known in the marine science world for her research into dugong and sea turtle poo. Her findings confirmed that dugongs and turtles are like...

The sugarcane industry is a highly visible part of the Wet Tropics landscape – if you drive between Ingham and the Daintree, you can't miss it. Employing more than 4000 direct jobs and supporting another 1800, it contributes over $630 million to our local rural economies. However, since the health of the Great Barrier Reef has been in the spotlight, so too has the impact of the sugar industry on w...

Nathan Waltham, Senior Principal Researcher at James Cook University, is an expert in coastal landscape ecology and processes.  In this episode of the Reef & Rivers podcast Nathan talks about the importance of different wetland habitats, the pressures from urban development and the future fo restoration work. 

This is the 8th annual Wet Tropics Waterway Health Report Card to be released by Wet Tropics Waterways to assess the health and condition of freshwater basins, estuaries, inshore and offshore areas of the Wet Tropics in Far North Queensland.  Independent Chair Dr Greg Vinall explains some of the key findings in 2023.

If you've visited the Cairns Aquarium you'll know that biodiversity and conservation education are a driving force behind their business model. In fact, raising awareness about the biodiversity in our world heritage-listed reef and rainforest underpins their entire philosophy. With over 100,000 visitors annually, the Aquarium is in a unique position to educate and influence. Christine Jorgensen is...

The Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project was an ambitious 4-year social change and reef water quality project, and has been described as a blueprint to accelerating progress towards achieving reef water quality targets. The project had unprecedented engagement from the agricultural sector and resulted in 23,966 of hectares of land under confirmed practice change, and saved an estimated 73 tonnes o...

Despite its name, the Johnstone River snapping turtle is no snappier than any other freshwater turtle – and is perhaps better known by its alias, the 'bum breather'. According to turtle expert Alistair Freeman, this ability for cloacal respiration is thought to enable bum breathers to stay under water for prolonged periods to avoid predation, although this is still only theory. Robust and adaptabl...

Mangroves and saltmarsh are important coastal ecosystems that help purify water, buffer coastal communities from extreme weather and provide fish nurseries for our recreational and commercial fishing industries. They're also among the most efficient ecosystems in the world at sequestering and storing carbon – but are under threat from climate change as well as local pressures such as urban develop...