Coast to Coast 2018

On Monday April 16 Rose Herben, State EstuaryWatch Coordinator jumped on the first flight to Hobart to participate in the Coast to Coast conference, a gathering of community, researchers and land managers all working on the coast.

On the second day of the conference Rose presented on the benefits of citizen science programs like EstuaryWatch collaborating with Universities to design new monitoring protocols.  Last year  EstuaryWatch collaborated with students from Deakin University to develop protocols for monitoring Chlorophyll a in estuaries and collaborated with the University of Melbourne to develop protocols for monitoring environmental DNA (eDNA) in estuaries.

Rose's highlights from the conference included:

• meeting Linda Johnson, an active member of the Friends of Moore River Estuary in Western Australia.  The Friends of Moore River Estuary are working closely with the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC) to monitor the health of the Moore River estuary. NACC and EstuaryWatch Victoria are always sharing ideas and resources and it was a thrill to meet one of their community monitors.
• hearing an update on the new Marine and Coastal Act that is being developed in Victoria.  A proposed transition plan can be found at www.coastsandmarine.vic.gov.au/marine-and-coastal-act
• learning about social licence, a term used to describe obtaining and maintaining broad community support and acceptance for a project.
• learning about place attachment, a term used to describe the emotional bond between person and place.  Liz Patterson from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spoke about how we consider place attachment in coastal planning and management.
• taking a guided tour of urban, industrial and artistic projects happening on the Derwent River Estuary and hearing from members of the Derwent River Estuary Project www.derwentestuary.org.au/
• hearing presentations from Alluvium where EstuaryWatch volunteers were acknowledged for the data they contributed to projects on Merricks Creek and Gellibrand River estuaries.

To find out more about the Coast to Coast Conference 2018 visit www.coasttocoast2018.org