Virtual Fish Count

With over 600 species of marine fish swimming around Victorian waters, counting fish certainly sounds like a daunting task as a diver or snorkeller signed up to the Great Victorian Fish Count.

Luckily, this program has developed a simplified, user friendly system to counting fish swimming about in their natural habitats!

Since 2002 the Great Victorian Fish count has been monitoring fish across the Victorian coast to an effort to improve our knowledge of Victoria’s Marine Species.

Supported by the Victorian Government, led by Victorian National Parks Association in partnership with museum Victoria, Parks Victoria, Coast care Victoria and Red Map the count is now the largest citizen science event on Victoria’s Marine Calendar.

Every November and December hundreds of divers and snorkellers take the plunge along Victoria’s coastline surveying the local piers, jetties, and beaches for a selection of important fish species. Using a dive slate, they record the numbers and report others not usually found in the area. The information is uploaded to the atlas of living Australia, which has 87,000,000 records of biodiversity data and counting.

Rising sea levels increasing ocean temperatures and growing ocean acidity are just some of the impacts that climate change will have on Victoria’s marine environment. To improve the resilience of Victoria’s marine environments against climate change we must improve coastal management and protection.

Virtual Fish count!
You can now take part in a Virtual Fish count from the comfort of your own home! Footage from ReefCam located at Popes Eye Marine National Parks in Port Phillip Bay was recorded to verify results from a previous fish count. You can use this footage to practice the skill of counting fish!

Check out the Virtual Count here:
http://vnpa.org.au/programs/great-victorian-fish-count/