Eco Certified Tourism Services

Eye to Eye Marine Encounters is a certified Advanced Ecotourism service. This means that we are one of Australia's leading and most innovative ecotourism providers, operating with minimal impact on the environment and providing opportunities for our clients to learn about the environment. As a certified operator we are committed to achieving best practices: using resources wisely, contributing to the conservation of our environment, and helping our local communities.

Your support helps us to continue the research and to raise public awareness of the necessity of marine conservation now and into the future. Bringing together a loyal and dedicated team of reef researchers and marine professionals, we channel your tourism dollar into important scientific projects so that we can achieve a better future.

Achievements

• Great Barrier Reef (GBR) rezoning – our submissions and lobbying with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) greatly assisted with the increased protection of the GBR from 4.5% to 33%
• Carried out water quality sampling for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which contributed to the formation of The GBR Water Quality Protection Plan.
• MOU to protect Coral Sea Reefs – signed by the tourism and fishing industries, the Memorandum Of Understanding restricted fishing at sensitive Coral Sea reefs and was the first step in the current World Wildlife Fund supported Save the Coral Sea campaign.

• Initiated the creation and implementation of what is now recognized by the IWC as the 'world's best practice' for sustainable in-water whale tourism. This Code Of Practice has been used to develop similar legislation in several other countries (e.g Brasil and South Africa).
• Involvement in local and global climate change initiatives and being chosen as the WWF's 'Witness to climate change spokesman', 2009
• Founder and former president of the Low Isles Preservation Society, which co-manages Low Isles (the site of the world's first ever detailed study on coral reef in 1928) with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

• Helped bring the award-winning marine conservation NPO Reef Check to Australia where John held a position on the board of directors for many years
• Our staff are active members of many local tourism/conservation advisory boards including Tourism and Recreation Reef Advisory Committee (TRRAC), Local Marine Advisory Committees (LMAC), Low Isles Preservation Society (LIPS), Cod Hole and Ribbon Reef Operators Association (CHARRROA)) which has contributed to the growth and maintenance of a strong and environmentally friendly tourism industry for the Great Barrier Reef