Mark Read boasts a bevy of nicknames. Among them, 'Ready' is standard fare, as is 'Çhopper' thanks to his notorious former namesake made famous in a popular 2000 Australian film. But to his colleagues at the Reef Authority, the Director of Field Management Strategy is the unassuming 'Doctor Croc', a pioneering backcountry biologist who once harboured dreams of becoming a chef!
"I really liked to cook," he says.
"But, having grown up as that precocious Central Queensland kid who just loved catching reptiles, I decided to become a wildlife biologist who liked to cook and eat well instead."
After making a key contribution to 'writing the book' on safely monitoring and relocating large saltwater crocodiles, his colleagues worldwide are glad he did.
Long before he was charged with protecting some of the most iconic and vulnerable Reef habitats, Mark spent nearly a decade with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, scouring remote reaches of the North Queensland coastline for crocodiles and turtles … and the odd cassowary.
"Essentially, my job was really to be able to provide the government of the day with information about how the crocodile populations in Queensland were faring," Mark says.
"I was working primarily on estuarine or saltwater crocodiles. So, I was answering questions around numbers, like are croc numbers going up or are the numbers going down? Where are the most crocs located? If they're near a human habitation, are they exhibiting dangerous behaviour to people? And then part of my job was to go out there and target those animals for removal to reduce the risk to people."
It was during this time that Mark and his colleagues pioneered the application of satellite transmitters on saltwater crocodiles to track and monitor their movements. And the results were nothing short of remarkable.
"As part of this research, we caught three crocodiles and put satellite transmitters on them, and then translocated, or moved and released them in another location," Mark explains.
"One, we moved from the west side of Cape York to the east side of Cape York and let it go. And that one just hung around in the release location for a couple of months before it decided to go home. And it swam around the tip of Cape York back to within 100 metres of where we caught it!
"We translocated two others, and they both did the same thing. They swam home. And that was fascinating because we then used that information to change the statewide policy on managing problem crocodiles."
And, as ironic as it might sound, it wasn't working with crocodiles that Mark and his QPWS colleagues had to be most wary of, or so the story goes.
"At the end of the day, if you're working in remote locations with machinery, boats, trailers, crocodile traps and big animals, you don't have a lot of freedom to make mistakes," Mark says earnestly.
"You've got to be safe. You've always got to be on the ball. The most dangerous part of my job was not working with crocodiles; it was actually working with machinery, driving trucks, towing trailers, and working with boats. I've got bigger scars on me from guinea pigs than I've got from crocodiles!"
And it was this invaluable experience, sans aggressive guinea pigs, led Mark to his current role with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
"It's essentially about protected area management. And so, it was a nice transition between Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Reef Authority because I came over here with all those skills of working with people, dealing with tricky issues and then understanding how animals use space through time. So, in many ways, it was hand in glove."
Today, as the Director of Field Management Strategy, his remit includes working in partnership with the Queensland Government to carry out all manner of conservation and monitoring, incident response, welcoming visitors, and upholding compliance across the entire Marine Park, including protected islands.
And by the numbers, that includes maintaining 347 public moorings and 289 reef protection markers, 163km of walking track, 111 campgrounds, 21 boardwalks and lookouts, and 15km of public roads across the Reef's island network.
"Because the Marine Park is so big, we can't cover all of it alone," Mark says.
"So, making sure we've got well established, well-functioning, respectful partnerships; whether that be with our Traditional Owners, with all our different government agencies, with our tourism operators or our researchers and, most importantly, the community and the thousands of visitors that actually go out there and use and appreciate the Reef.
"Nothing compares to standing on Country with a Traditional Owner and hearing them talk about Country," he says.
"It just gives you these extraordinary goose bumps moments and a better understanding of why Country is so fundamentally important to them."
And it's only fitting that this year, the primary management tool that Mark and all Reef partners rely on to protect biodiversity and build resilience across the entire Marine Park is celebrating a significant milestone.
It's been 20 years since the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003 was signed into legislation on 2 December 2003, creating – at the time – the largest protected sea area in the world.
Zoning guides all Reef users, outlining activities permitted in certain areas through a simple traffic light system. And the most salient point of all… is that it works!
Research shows that in 20 years, the facilitation of no-take or green zones has seen a resurgence in exploited species, reductions in pest species, and lower incidences of disease outbreaks.
"We've found within the Marine National Park zones or what we call green zones, fish like coal trout are more numerous than the other zones and bigger so they produce more babies.
"And the research shows that the babies produced in the green zones actually come out of those zones into areas that are open to fishing, or blue zones, in what we call a spillover effect, so there are these amazing benefits from zoning that are providing benefits to all Reef users."
Moreover, the increase in predatory fish stocks also correlates directly with significant reductions in the frequency of crown-of-thorn starfish outbreaks on green zone reefs, while restrictions on recreational activities, including fishing and spearfishing, which can inadvertently harm and scar coral reef through anchor damage, have also resulted in lower incidences of coral disease across green zone reefs.
And for Doctor Croc, who is also a self-described 'mad keen' fisherman, these remarkable results are proof that when it comes to protecting Australia's greatest natural wonder, everyone has a role to play.
