Citizen science at Magnetic (Yunbenun) Island's Journal

A milestone 10,000 observations has been achieved for this citizen science project. The 10,000th observation was a Bengal sergeant by Adam Smith https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/193105614

The most species 374 and most observations 1,037 have been by @valryr . The most identifications at 679 by @joefish. Congratulations and thank your for your dedication to knowledge sharing and citizen science

The top three species are koala, Allied rock wallaby and Goldstripe butterflyfish.

Insects comprise 38.15%, plants 18.67% and fish 11.8% of observations

Just over 61% of observations are research grade so we need experts to review and assist with species identifications.

Currently 1995 species have been observed so the next milestone is 2000 species.

Please contact @adam_smith3 if you have suggestions on how this project can be improved or linked to education, traditional knowledge and management

A project search indicates that there are more observations from Magnetic than Fraser Island (Qld), Rottnest Island (WA) and less than Kangaroo Island (SA)

Dr Dani Ceccarelli is a Magnetic Island resident and AIM scientist and she is putting together a Yunbenun Marine Fish Guide, and would love the community to be involved.
Do you have some great underwater photos?
Send her a message by email dmcecca@gmail.com.

Congratulations to citizen scientists for achieving over 7000 observations of 1,636 species at Magnetic Island.

This project has involved 396 observers so far and 873 identifiers totalling well over 1000 people which is an extraodinory achievement for a small island. The lead observer is @valryr and top identifier is @joefish

The most observed species are Koala, Allied Rock Wallaby and Gold stripe butterflyfish

Did you know koalas were introduced to the island in the 1930s to protect them from perceived threats on the mainland. A study in 2012 estimated the island supports a population of around 800 koalas. https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/magnetic-island/about/culture

Did you know the allied rock-wallaby or Weasel rock-wallaby (Petrogale assimilis) is a species of rock-wallaby found in northeastern Queensland, Australia. P. assimilis has a wide distribution in Queensland and is common within that range. The population trend seems to be stable and no particular threats to this species are known. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern". Some factors that affect rock wallabies are climate change, which may alter the flora of their habitat, introduced predators such as dogs and foxes, degradation, loss and fragmentation of habitat, competition from introduced grazing animals and changing practices for periodic burning

Did you know that the Gold stripe butterflyfish has a habitat on silty coastal reefs, even those near the mouths of rivers and this species is able to withstand high percentages of freshwater. It is found at depths of 1 to 20 metres and they are encountered as pairs or in small groups This species is an obligate corallivore, feeding on coral polyps, but can persist in areas of relatively sparse coral growth It has been observed that this species has seemingly developed a wide diet than other corallivorous butterflyfishes, possibly in response to coral declines and that this may also account for their move into brackish water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaetodon_aureofasciatus

Communication
There is an online article ''iNaturalist citizen science in the Dry Tropics' by Reef Ecologic in the 2021-2022 Management Response Report https://drytropicshealthywaters.org/management-response-reports/actions-with-flow-on-impact/

People
Congratulations to Rachelle Brown for having the most observations at 681 overtaking valryr.

Species
We note that the most observed species are the Koala, Allied Rock wallaby and the Gold-striped butterflyfish.

Insects comprise 552 species or 35.6% of observations.
Plants 287 species and 18.5%
Fish 210 species and 13.5%

What you like
Also check out the observations and species that have had the most comments and faves
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/citizen-science-at-magnetic-yunbenun-island?tab=stats

There will be 40 excited citizen scientists exploring Yunbenun (Magnetic) Island today for the 2022 EIANZ conference field trip and Great Southern Bioblitz

Reef Ecologic is encouraging everyone who lives in or visits the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area to capture pictures of wildlife you see on walks, snorkels, fishing trips or dives and upload them to iNaturalist.org. If you live further afield or can't make it out, you can still participate from home by helping to identify the wildlife in the observations!

The field trip is 28 October and is fully booked https://www.eianz.org/document/item/6694

Participants can take pictures from 28-31 October, and then have from 1-14 November to upload them to iNaturalist. People can also participate by helping to identify other people’s observations. This project aims to capture a snapshot of wildlife in the Southern Hemisphere.

Details of the project can be found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2022-great-barrier-reef

And here is a link to a training video we made for a previous event that can help acquaint you with iNaturalist if you haven't used it before: https://youtu.be/2aAeBGkDY8Y