As a natural delegate booster, it’s hard to go past the world’s most extraordinary reef; the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef.
Calypso Reef Cruises
Your delegates could spend weeks exploring this amazing underwater universe, with its colourful coral gardens and bommies and its abundant marine life, from tropical fish to turtles, rays, and even whales but there’s a conference to attend! With limited time, it’s important to select the right reef operator that delivers the right reef experience for your group. Let’s find out how Calypso Reef Cruises delivers an eco-sustainable day on the reef for you.
Contributing to the Reef matters
The health of the Great Barrier Reef is monitored very closely by both local operators and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Coral bleaching is a natural stress response and individual coral colonies are likely to suffer from a degree of bleaching in any given summer and is not of major concern to scientists and marine biologists. However, mass coral bleaching events can result in coral mortality. Luckily, there are initiatives underway to restore coral in areas that have experienced damage in recent years.
Certified to empower your delegates
Calypso Reef Cruises departs from the idyllic seaport of Port Douglas and is an Advanced Eco Certified operator with Ecotourism Australia; environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Your group will feel empowered knowing their reef trip is with a caretaker of the World Heritage Listed area.
Delegates can explore the very outer Great Barrier Reef in luxury with Calypso. Made up of four separate reefs that face out to the South Pacific Ocean, Agincourt Reef is regarded as one of the most significant sites of this natural wonder. With rich, diverse coral gardens that help form protective ocean walls, it’s filled with hard and soft corals, and the reef’s most iconic species such as sharks, stingrays, turtles, whales, groupers and cods, Maori wrasse and parrotfish. Calypso Reef Cruises have implemented strategies to minimise their impact on the inhabitants.
On the countdown
Calypso Reef Cruises track their carbon emissions using the Marine Park Authority emissions calculator. Their vessels are custom-designed and serviced regularly to maintain optimal fuel efficiency. Daily recycling onboard is assisted with bamboo cups and spoons for ice cream, as well as natural napkins instead of bleached. Afternoon tea just got a whole lot more guilt-free.
A sustainable citizen and dedicated department
Working closely with the conservation platform Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef (CoGBR), since 2018, Calypso has evolved its sustainability practices and interpretation tools. Their parent company, Experience Co is a Founding Citizen of CoGBR and has since created “GBR Biology”, a marine biology department embedded in each tour product including Calypso.
The goal of GBR Biology is to provide your delegates with a greater awareness of the world’s largest coral reef system and empower more sustainable communities. Calypso creates an immersive educational experience based on world heritage values delivered and led by university-trained marine biologists and Master Reef Guides. This includes contributions to ongoing research projects through place-based learning projects.
Currently, GBR Biology has seven active research projects to understand and promote coral reef resilience covering fish aggregation behaviour, crown-of-thorns starfish ecology, hydrodynamics of coral reefs, coral rubble stabilisation, the movement of sharks and rays, and lastly Kul-Bul; combining Western biological science with Indigenous ecological knowledge to monitor and assist natural reef resilience processes.
Keeping an eye on their impact
As a final lasting legacy, delegates can participate in the weekly Eye on the Reef monitoring survey submitted to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Participants collect valuable information about reef health, marine animals, and weather incidents to influence how the GBR is managed.
Contribution to the health of the Great Barrier Reef by delegates is a powerful way to create a memorable business event. Surrounding your team with great, leaves your business greater.