In the Great Barrier Reef and Marine Parks Region, response to marine turtle strandings is largely undertaken by a network of volunteers. Over the past 9 years, the volunteer network has expanded considerably with volunteers now responding to over 80% of marine turtle strandings in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The volunteers also contribute significantly to turtle stranding response in the southern state marine parks of Great Sandy and Moreton Bay.

Community involvement with marine strandings response is an output of the Great Barrier Reef Joint Field Management Program Annual Business Plan, with a performance indicator of 90% of low risk strandings requiring response are attended to by trained community volunteers or Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers’. Having a contractor manage the day-to-day operations of the volunteer network will greatly assist with achieving these targets.

For the last 3 years the QPWS Stranding Coordinator has been responsible for managing the contract for an organisation to manage the volunteer network to coordinate volunteers to respond to reports of marine turtle strandings and deliver marine turtle responder training. As the network of volunteers has grown, so has the task of managing the volunteer response. Enlisting the assistance of a contractor to manage the day-to-day operations of volunteer management will continue to allow the Stranding Coordinator to devote time to other important work such as overarching governance of the volunteer groups and other higher stranding priorities.

The volunteer network that the contractor will manage comprises of approximately 22 groups of volunteers, spread between Brisbane in the south and north to Cairns.