Long Term Monitoring

The Importance of Monitoring

Community-based monitoring is an essential aspect of coral reef management and allows for multi-level monitoring that is useful at local, regional, and global levels.

Hawai’i’s reef health has declined since the first Reef Check survey, with increasing levels of coral bleaching and siltation. A sick reef can’t support critical fish and invertebrate populations. Today in the Main Hawaiian Islands
we see fewer and smaller fish on Hawai`i’s reefs compared with those in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Careful programs of monitoring and education can help restore Hawai`i’s reefs by helping our communities protect and rehabilitate damaged reefs with ecologically sound and sustainable solutions. A healthy, well-managed reef allows all members of the community, conservationists and fishermen alike, the chance to enjoy the coral reef environment while maintaining the health of a vital and unique ecosystem. It is only through this partnership between scientists, government, fishermen, conservationists, and members of the public that Hawai`i’s reefs will once again shine as the jem of the Pacific.

Click here to learn more about the methodology of long term monitoring.