The marine tourism industry is a major contributor to the local and Australian economy generating over $5 billion per annum in 2011. It is the largest commercial activity in the Great Barrier Reef region, playing an important role in presenting the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to a wide range of visitors.
For many visitors to coastal Queensland, the tourism fleet is their primary means of experiencing the Great Barrier Reef. There are approximately 820 operators and 1500 vessels operating in the Marine Park.
There are a diverse range of tourism operations in the Great Barrier Reef including day tours, overnight and extended tours, snorkelling, scuba diving and fishing charters, long range roving tours, aircraft …show more content…
"It's a worst-case scenario because the Great Barrier Reef is one of the natural wonders of the world and more than 80 per cent of the area that is catchment is now used for agriculture. But Australia has a lot of management focus on maintaining the reef, so recognizing the problem here will hopefully have a ripple effect to the rest of the world."
One way to halt the damage to the reef was allowing vegetation such as mangroves to re-grow along river banks and to keep areas of rainforest between cane farms, he said.
"Just maintaining a natural buffer zone in that way, we would probably have a significant improvement in the short term," Dr Marion said.
The study's findings will be presented in Mackay tomorrow to a public meeting attended by leading researchers from the reef studies center, the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.
Mining and shipping
Queensland is home to natural resources such as coal, uranium and liquid natural gas (LNG).
These minerals are shipped to countries such as China and