Gecko collaborates with the Gold Coast Catchment Association Inc (now called Watergum) who manages several citizen science programs being Platypus Watch, Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality.
Gecko is involved with the macroinvertebrates and water quality programs, what we call the Clean Creeks Program. This program raises community and government awareness in the Currumbin, Tallebudgera and Coomera catchments and aims to distribute information on waterways health, trends and impacts.
Macroinverbrates are small animals that live part or all of their life in water. There are many types of macroinvertebrate such as dragonfly larvae, mosquito larvae, beetles and snails.
Macroinvertebrates make good biological indicators because they have different sensitivities to pollution . So by sampling macroinvertebrate communities and looking at both the types and numbers of animals present we can get an idea as to how healthy a waterway is. This data when joined with the water quality data (e.g. pH, conductivity) provides a snapshot and forms part of past collected data to establish a baseline as to how healthy a waterway is. The collected data is managed by the Gold Coast Catchment Association Inc and is accessible to the community on their website https://goldcoastcatchments.org/citizen-science/.