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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 76(2)

Australians’ perceptions of species diversity of, and threats to, the Great Barrier Reef

Jarrah Taylor A , Carla Litchfield A and Brianna Le Busque https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9096-1897 B C *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A University of South Australia, Justice and Society, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

B University of South Australia, STEM, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

C Centre for Marine Socioecology, Battery Point, Tas., Australia.

* Correspondence to: brianna.lebusque@unisa.edu.au

Handling Editor: Jacob Johansen

Marine and Freshwater Research 76, MF24109 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF24109
Submitted: 8 May 2024  Accepted: 10 January 2025  Published: 31 January 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is under threat from multiple anthropogenic activities such as tourism and climate change. Understanding participants’ knowledge about the GBR can encourage conservation of the GBR.

Aim

This study investigated what participants, whom were all Australian, know about the GBR, the species that reside there and the threats to the GBR ecosystem.

Methods

Participants (n = 113), recruited by social media, completed a short online survey that included four open-ended items exploring various aspects of GBR knowledge.

Key results

Results indicated that participants identified a range of threats to GBR, that fell into broad categories of environmental and social impacts. Results also showed that the most common broad taxa identified were fish, coral and reptiles, and that clown fish were the most common specific GBR species identified.

Conclusions

In conclusion, this study has provided evidence of limited knowledge of species that live in the GBR, and basic broad knowledge of threats to the GBR.

Implications

This study has contributed new insights regarding knowledge of GBR and recognition of animals that live in the GBR to show where public awareness campaigns should be focused and highlighted avenues for future research.

Keywords: conservation, Great Barrier Reef, knowledge, marine species, ocean literacy, perceptions, public awareness, threats.

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