Past Conferences
Sunshine Coast 2011
The 86th Annual ACRS Conference, held 26-29 August on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, at the Novotel Twin Waters Resort, was a smashing success. There were several highlights to the conference: the wonderful plenary talks by Katherina Fabricius, Terry Hughes, Hugh Possingham, and Morgan Pratchett; the ARC Centre of Excellence student mentoring day; the Coral Finder workshop; and the Public Forum on Saturday night with a mix of scientists, managers, and industry leaders discussing how best to spend $100 M to improve reef resilience. Answers ranged from don’t spend any of it, to spending the funds on education and outreach, to industry support to community engagement, and more. The conference banquet was also fun, with a live band, the presentation of student prizes, and the auction of the inaugural perpetual ACRS membership. Through our annual conference, ACRS continues to expand its influence on the science and management of coral reefs and its support for the next generation of coral reef scientists.
Student Presentation Prizes
Oral presentation prizes:
Fantasea Foundation field excursions: Melanie Trapon
Vicky Harriott prize: Rebecca Lawton
Quicksilver Cruises Outer Barrier Reef trip: Yui Sato
Research Station bench space - Heron Island: Andrew Chin
Research Station bench space - Lizard Island: Tom Hawkins
Research Station bench space - Orpheus Island: Stefanie Pontasch
Research Station bench space - One Tree Island: Joanne Bayes
CSIRO GBR Book: Nicola Browne
Coral Finder kit: Alyssa Marshell
Qld Museum - Moreton Bay Wild: Andrew Olds
Fantasea book donation: Tom Bridge
Poster prize:
Fantasea book donation: Ai Nguyen
Coffs Harbour 2010
The 85th Annual ACRS conference was held this year for the first time at Coffs Harbour. It once again brought together Australia’s coral reef community to exchange ideas and the latest research findings and to encourage and reward postgraduate students in their endeavours. Hosted by Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre, the conference involved more than 130 leading national and international coral reef researchers.
Friday evening saw the conference officially opened by Southern Cross University Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Lee as the National Marine Science Centre showcased their excellent research and educational facilities.
Coral bleaching, the impact of warming waters on coral reefs, marine debris and the management of marine parks were just some of the topics covered as the conference continued on Saturday and Sunday at the Novotel Pacific Bay Resort. The next generation of reef scientists, represented by our students provided some engaging presentations, alongside veteran researchers and keynote speakers.
Speakers at the conference included:
• Professor Peter Mumby, The University of Queensland
• Dr Mark Meekan, Australian Institute of Marine Science, WA
• Dr Alan Jordan, NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water
• Dr Maoz Fine, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
• Professor Maria Byrne, University of Sydney
• Dr David Wachenfeld, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Workshops
Coral identification and sub-tropical reefs workshops were on offer to attendees in addition to the annual student mentoring day hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
Thanks to speakers, organisers and sponsors
Huge thanks goes to local conference organiser Anna Scott, and again to Selina Ward for another brilliantly organised event. Other special mentions here include Uli Siebeck, Zena Dinesen, Naomi Gardiner, Emily Howells, Andy Hoey, Ross Hill, Chris Goatley, Rebecca Lawton, and Brigitte Sommer. Thanks also to our speakers and all who came and contributed their expertise and enthusiasm to a most memorable event. Congratulations to all students who won prizes. Thank you especially to event sponsors The SCU Marine Ecology Research Centre (MERC), GBRMPA, SCU, and UQ. Thanks also to the National Marine Science Centre for hosting the event, SCU Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Lee for opening the conference and Mark Flanders for his warm ‘Welcome to Country’.
Wrap up
Sundowners, the live band and the awards presentation were highlights of the closing dinner at the Park Beach Surf Club which was a time to celebrate those few great days of collaboration and fun.
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Subtropical reef workshop | Conference dinner | Field trip |
Field excursion
The local residents of the Solitary Islands Marine Park put on a show for conference goers who enjoyed the excitement of shark encounters with scuba diving company Dive Quest and a perfect day of whale watching aboard the Spirit of Coffs Harbour guided by Dr. Daniel Burns.
Student Travel Awards
For the 2010 Conference, ACRS awarded travel awards to assist students with their fares to the national conference. While many of these students were from James Cook University, travel awards were also given to students from UTS in Sydney and the University of Queensland. This time applications were also open to New Zealand students, and travel assistance was provided to two students from the Victoria University of Wellington. ACRS is really pleased to able to support so many students to travel to the annual conference and present their research. The society awarded travel grants between $250 and $770 to 27 students.
Student Presentation Prizes
The annual ACRS scientific conference always provides a great opportunity for postgraduate students to showcase their research, and this year in Coffs Harbour there were, again, many high quality student presentations.
A panel of judges assessed the presentations according to an agreed set of criteria, with at least two judges allocated per student paper. The panel consisted of Zena Dinesen, John Pandolfi, Peter Mumby, Ross Hill, and Dave Wachenfeld. (Please note this year there were very few posters entered by student members, and no awards were given in this category.)
The most prestigious student award is the Vicki Harriott Memorial Student Prize, established by the ACRS Council in 2005 in memory of the late Vicki Harriott, in recognition of Vicki’s great contributions to coral reef research and marine science education. The Vicki Harriott Prize for 2010 (a cheque for $500.00) for the best student presentation was awarded to Sebastian Schmidt-Roach of AIMS/University of Tasmania, for his paper (Schmidt-Roach et al.) entitled ‘Challenging morphological plasticity in a keystone coral species’. This was a very interesting paper on phenotypic plasticity and genetics of Pocillopora damicornis that challenges, inter alia, some of the established taxonomic ideas about the range of growth forms encompassed within this species. Congratulations to Sebastian!
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Vicki Harriott Memorial Prize | Second major prize |
The second major prize, a trip for two people on a Quicksilver outer barrier reef cruise, was awarded to Rebecca Lawton, of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, at James Cook University, for her presentation of ‘High population connectivity across large geographic scales in two widespread coral reef butterflyfishes’. Well done, Rebecca.
There were also four prizes involving 4-7 days’ bench fees at the various Great Barrier Reef research stations. These were awarded to Jessica Stella of JCU (Lizard Island RS); Andrew Olds of Griffith University, Gold Coast (Orpheus Island RS); Hugo Harrison of JCU (One Tree Island RS); and Adrian Lutz of JCU (Heron Island RS).
A copy of the book ‘The Great Barrier Reef – Biology, Environment and Management’ edited by Pat Hutchings, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and published by the CSIRO, was presented to Deborah Cleland of the Australian National University for her presentation on SimReef and ReefGame, tools to support integrated reef research and management. Our congratulations to these prize winners, and thanks to all the students for their excellent and interesting presentations. The ACRS Council is very grateful to Quicksilver, the Research Stations and CSIRO for generously donating these prizes. Thanks also to Pat Hutchings and Selina Ward for liaising with these institutions and helping to arrange for the donations of prizes.
Other Past Conferences
2009 - Darwin
2007 - Fremantle
2006 - Mission Beach
2005 - Heron Island
2003 - Townsville