27 November 2001

Interactive coastal fish habitat web site.

If you want to know more about Queensland's coastal habitat and fisheries, contact CHRIS, a Department of Primary Industries' interactive web site that is swimming with information.

CHRIS - the Coastal Habitat Resources Information System - is a web-based resource centre that should prove interesting to commercial and recreational fishers, coastal managers and environmentalists, as well as teachers and students.

Queensland Fisheries Service Data Coordinator, Clare Bullock, said users could access a wide range of information on habitat management and planning, fish habitat, commercial catch and recreational fishing.

"Information is available on management boundaries for Fish Habitat Areas, fishing closures, dugong protected areas, and national and marine parks," Ms Bullock said.

"The web site also contains data on fish habitats including coastal wetlands, seagrass and biological surveys," she said.

CHRIS users could search for protected areas and fishing closures within an area, then print maps of those areas, rather than work with coordinates.

"For example, if you want to obtain maps of the dugong protected areas in Queensland, the CHRIS web site can help you," Ms Bullock said.

"You can use CHRIS to access the location of mangroves and seagrass habitats, to find out where community monitoring activities are being carried out, and to see where high fish catch areas are located.

"CHRIS users are able to display, print and query fisheries-related habitat and fish catch data."

Ms Bullock said that feedback from users was welcomed and would be used to improve CHRIS.

CHRIS can be accessed at http://chrisweb.dpi.qld.gov.au/chris.

Further information: Clare Bullock (07) 3405 6822
Fisheries Media Coordinator: Lisa Connors (07) 3224 7757

Department of Primary Industries Media Unit
GPO Box 46 Brisbane Qld 4001 Fax (07) 3239 0860