Who cares for this coast? It’s not a question that necessarily springs to mind when you’re driving along the Great Ocean Road, but more than a dozen organisations recently came together to consider exactly that – asking what priority conservation and research actions are needed to safeguard the region’s coastal and marine environments into the future.

H5N1 avian influenza has been detected in wild birds along the Victorian coast, including near the Otways. The risk to people remains low, but a disease event like this can ripple through marine food webs in ways we need to be watching for. Here's how OMER is responding, and why our ongoing monitoring matters more than ever, including detailed safety protocols going out to volunteers ahead of November's survey season.

The Otways Marine Ecosystem Resilience (OMER) Initiative continues to gather momentum, with several exciting funding successes helping expand the program from long-term ecological monitoring into community-led stewardship and conservation action.

The Otways Marine Ecosystem Resilience (OMER) Initiative continues to grow as surveys expand to new locations along the Great Ocean Road. OMER is a collaborative program led by the Conservation Ecology Centre (CEC) in partnership with Otway Ocean Care (OOC) and the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation (EMAC).

Another successful round of OMER surveys was completed in October and November, with CEC staff and an enthusiastic team of volunteers surveying Marengo, Blanket Bay, Skenes Creek, Parker Inlet, and Crayfish Bay.

These seasonal surveys form the backbone of the Otways Marine Ecosystem Resilience (OMER) initiative, which is building up-to-date ecological baselines for intertidal and subtidal ecosystems along the Otway coast.