On Tuesday, 16th October Nicole Mertens, ReefWatch Project Officer, Victorian National Parks Association will present on how ReefWatch projects are helping to understand the challenges our Bay faces – from re-establishing long lost oyster reefs to using nudibranchs as indicators of climate change.
Nicole is a budding next-gen expert on the health of southern Australia’s reefs.
As a marine ecologist, Nicole’s background is in environmental education and communication. She is interested in exploring how citizen science can benefit researchers and conservationists through addressing knowledge gaps as well as providing a gateway for the broader community to engage with their environment and build a desire to protect it.
She believes citizen science plays an important role in helping monitor the health of the Bay and is excited about ReefWatch’s OysterWatch and Sea Slug Census projects, in particular, as she contends that invertebrates are vital to the health of our oceans.
