Feature:
Additional moorings to help protect sensitive Whitsunday sites

On the Boil:
At the forefront of GBR critical issues
Fishing and the marine ecosystem
Minimising tourism impact
From the land to the sea
International acceptance in conservation planning

Reef Brief:
Visitors' values reviewed
Expert recommends natural combat for oil spills
Cetacean care in Marine Park
International coral reef conference
Dugongs on the Web
GBR Consultative Committee meeting

n line with the Authority's sharper focus on critical issues facing the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Reef Management News will be reporting on the four 'Critical Issue Groups', providing a forum for the clarification and discussion of the workings of the Groups, their individual concerns and the issues at the forefront of their agendas.

Included this month is an overview of the aims and objectives of each of these 'Critical Issue Groups': Water Quality and Coastal Development; Tourism and Recreation; Fisheries; and Conservation, Biodiversity and World Heritage. In future, topical items relating to these Groups will be featured in 'ON THE BOIL'.

Reef Management News looks not only at what these groups are about, but just as importantly, who they are about. When you first delve into these 'critical issues' it is easy to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; its wealth of ecological, social, cultural and economic values that are so very important, not only to Australia, but to the rest of the world. Once you speak to the people responsible for managing such a precious, complex and dynamic resource you realise, however, that the task is in the hands of a team of dedicated, caring and entirely competent people.

Reef Management News has profiled just two of these people this month - Director of the 'Fisheries Group', Dr Phil Cadwallader, and Director of the 'Conservation, Biodiversity and World Heritage Group', Jon Day. The next issue will look at the Directors of the other critical issue groups, Annie Ilett of the 'Tourism and Recreation Group' and Jon Brodie who is head of the 'Water Quality and Coastal Management Group'.