Zela Bissett reports
Over the weekend August 2- 4 a team of dedicated experts and citizen scientists gathered at the Rainbow beach Community Centre for a Bioblitz. What exactly IS a Bioblitz? A BioBlitz is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. Groups of scientists, naturalists and volunteers conduct an intensive field study over a continuous time period. Cooloola Coast Care has now run four Bioblitzes, starting in 2018, with many team leaders and supporters returning each year.
FIDO has been supporting the bioblitz since 2018 when John Sinclair formed a partnership with Cooloola Coast Care to run a Bioblitz there, as much of the biota is similar to that of K’gari, both being part of the Cooloola Sandmass. FIDO has been supporting the 3 subsequent bioblitzes both financially and logistically. Bioblitzes are very effective ways of bringing interested people into the environmental movement and spreading environmental education in a fun and memorable way.
The team leaders take small groups out into the field and observe particular species and also note their interactions with other parts of the ecosystem. Popular spots for viewing include Carlo Sand Blow, Bymien Picnic area, Lake Poona, Seary’s Creek and many others. The bioblitzes are certainly helping establish the enormous diversity of plant, insect, fungi, reptile and mammal species present in the area. From the very first Bioblitz in 2018, an unprecedented number of arachnids have been documented and more are being found every year. Ethan Yeoman, one of the spider experts has finished with some preliminary calculations for the spiders collected during this year’s Bioblitz to reveal some truly amazing statistics.
Ethan reports that in total we collected 72 species. Of those 72, 42 have not been collected in any of the previous bioblitzes, and of those 42, 24 were undescribed species. This brings the total number of spider species collected during all Cooloola BioBlitzes from 159 up to 201, and the total number of undescribed species from 90 to 114.
Children from the Butchulla Culture Club youth group enjoyed taking part in the spider survey. Teaching young children about the part of spiders in the ecosystem helps reduce irrational fear of spiders experienced by some children (and adults). Thanks to FIDO support, 32 people from the Butchulla people were able to attend this year.
The Bioblitz started off on Friday afternoon with many early arrivals opting to make paper from weeds, a new initiative by FIDO, to productively use weeds removed from native bushland. FIDO has been actively involved in weeding as a major part of our activity since 2005 and the next step is to regard the weeds as resources. The aim is to teach local people how to make paper-based souvenirs such as paper packs, postcards, greeting cards and artworks from the weeds which can be sold to visitors as a sustainable memento of their visit. Members of the Butchulla Native title Aboriginal Corporation spent 3 days with Zela collecting weeds and turning them into paper in the week prior to the Bioblitz.
On Friday evening after dinner, some groups went out to spot frogs and other nocturnal creatures. Those who stayed in the hall were able to hear an interesting talk from botanist Dr Hilary Pearl on her research about the heathlands from Cooloola to Bribie Island. I gave a talk on Saturday evening about the history of FIDO and some audience members took membership forms, so time will tell whether they join us!
Groups left early on Saturday morning to go out into the field with the group leaders. A new feature of the Bioblitz this year was the Saturday afternoon Science Fair. Organisers Lindy and Randy Orwin and the Cooloola Coast Care team put in a huge effort to set up the stalls and make sure all the resources were in place to let the large crowd experience that combination of fun and education that leads to life-long understanding. FIDO had a double stall with copies of John Sinclair’s autobiography on display and for sale.
FIDO members Sandra and Navin Naidoo assisted with the stall, while a local student, James, took it on himself to help all afternoon with the weed paper-making which was enormously popular. Every scrap of pulp was made into paper! I have taken the paper home to dry and press, and this will be decorated and made into the first packs of weed paper for sale in the coming weeks. Organisers were favourably surprised by the large numbers attending, some of whom had travelled long distances to attend the event. Taking the record for the furthest travelers were one participant from Melbourne and a team leader, “Possum” Pete Crowcroft from the Great Ocean Road region of Victoria.
Information gathered is recorded on an App called i-Naturalist, which notes the place and time and an image of the species in question. Other users can then confirm of the identification is correct. If deemed reliable the data is then available to the scientific community. So far 3,737 observations have been uploaded to the i-Naturalist project by participants confirming the presence of 924 species across all groups. Cooloola Coast Care expects this to increase over coming weeks as more people upload their photos and identifications.
The Cooloola Bioblitz is being recognized as a respected event in the scientific and environmental community, with 199 attendees, double the numbers from the previous Bioblitzes. In addition to the scientific data gathered the event represents significant economic input into the local economy with most participants booking accommodation and meals in the local area. The group included university students, QPWS rangers, Butchulla Land and Sea Rangers, FIDO volunteers, a Gympie Regional Council employee as well as 21 members of Cooloola Coast Care who were kept very busy all weekend. The Cooloola Bioblitz is highly recommended to all who wish to know their area better and enjoy time outdoors with like-minded others.
You can find out about the diverse projects run by Cooloola Coast Care at Cooloola Coastcare – Newsletters