It’s the equivalent of the Olympics of the coral reef community. 

The International Coral Reef Society hosts its global conference just once every four years. This year the Foundation and Aussie scientists will fly the flag for the Great Barrier Reef at the event in Hawaii from 19 to 24 June which is expected to attract 2,500 coral reef scientists, managers and policy makers from 70 countries. 

A Foundation-initiative to host a global think tank at the conference will see Australian and international experts convene to focus on the Raine Island Recovery Project as well as the big-picture Reef Resilience Framework. Members of the Foundation team will also be part of a global panel exploring how genomics is making an impact in coral reef conservation and management.

At least 13 sessions at the International Coral Reef Society global conference will feature presentations from scientists working on Foundation-funded research projects, sharing their findings for the benefit of reef communities world-wide. Their presentation topics include ocean acidification, coral health and thermal tolerance, unravelling the complex structures of reef habitats, and the effects of waves on coral survival, to name just a few.

Reef citizen science will also be in the spotlight. The Great Barrier Reef Citizen Science Alliance is teaming up with representatives from James Cook University and the Central Caribbean Institute to host an interactive workshop to share ideas on how to take citizen science to the next level and achieve high impact for global reef science, management and conservation. The Alliance is a Foundation initiative supported by Boeing.