A reef rescue mission
ENVIRONMENTAL champion and multimedia specialist Mike Middleton spends every spare private moment he can trying to improve Australia’s understanding of the challenges the Great Barrier Reef faces.
Describing the 62-year-old Coolum resident as passionate is an understatement. Since his youth, the ex-sydney man has been deeply fascinated by the reef’s islands – what’s on them and what’s around their shores – and about their environmental well-being.
“I also have a passion for the reef and concerns for the environment because of climate change and pollution by plastic,” Mr Middleton said.
He spends about seven months each year travelling around the reef, talking to the boaties, observing their actions and impacts, recording the changes.
“I gather the information by talking to people directly and by visiting other boats at anchorages, and meeting people on the islands at things like sundowners or while diving,” Mr Middleton said.
His role as the recreational reef users representative on the Burnett Local Marine Advisory Committee, which advises the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on local marine park management issues, gives him the voice he needs to use his networking skills to connect the users and the overseers. He shares what the users need and think with the authority, and shares with the users what they need to know.
Mr Middleton recently released his latest pictorial book,
which records the indigenous and European history, and stunning beauty, of the island group located in the southern part of the reef.
He is working on his next pictorial book, which will be about the Great Southern Barrier Reef.
“There is a massive untold history of the Bunker Group, south of Cape Capricorn,” Mr Middleton said. Mr Middleton has learnt that recreational fishermen are doing the most damage, almost 55 per cent, to the reef.
“They are not being compliant with the amount of fish they take and the size limits, and fishing in green zones,” he said.
“For example, the Swains Reef has been over-fished for the last 25 years and, as a result, it has the biggest outbreak of the Crown of Thorns.
“The predatorial fish that eat the larvae have been decimated so we have this outbreak because there is no balance of nature or control.
“There is a huge ignorance on the reef. Fishermen just want to fill their eskies and go home.
“But, filling your esky and tinnie when you are a senior, for example, is pretty uncool because you are taking the breeding stock away.
“Just take what you can eat.” Mr Middleton recommends chatting to the younger generations around you – to your children and grandchildren – about what they can do to reduce their impact on the reef.
Sharing ideas on how to stop using plastic in everyday life is one idea. He also suggests seniors talk to them about which politician will really do something about climate change, and then vote for them.
If you are out fishing and see something that doesn’t look right, or you see something that is doing damage to the reef, Mr Middleton says you can report it through two mobile phone apps: Eyes on the Reef and Queensland Recreational Fishing Guide.
“As a senior, do the best you can to minimise the impact for the young ones coming through,” Mr Middleton said.