What does the reef mean to you?

Original story by Nathalie Fernbach with Kim Kleidon, ABC Capricornia

Chemical runoff, coral bleaching, fish populations, there are plenty of studies being done to check up on the health of the Great Barrier Reef.

But there's a gap in knowledge about the human side of the reef - the views of the locals and visitors who interact with it or make their living from it.

James Cook University and CSIRO are working together to fill this gap by interviewing more than 5000 people about their perception of, use of and feelings about the reef.

"We have decades and decades of information about the fish, the corals all of the actual animals that live out in the ocean," says researcher Jeremy Goldberg.

"But we lack a really comprehensive analysis or information about the entire Great Barrier Reef about the people about what they think, what they feel, what they value about the Great Barrier Reef," he says.

Four teams of researchers will quiz visitors and locals in Cairns and Cooktown, Mackay and the Whitsundays, Townsville and Bowen and Rockhampton and Gladstone.

Additional research will target commercial fishers and tourism operators to gain their perspectives too.

Mr Goldberg says he has been surprised and encouraged by the passion that people have for the reef.

"It is really rewarding for me personally to go and talk to just the general public to hear their stories and hear the emotion that it just brings out in them," he said.

Findings will be delivered to reef mangers, businesses and government to help them make decisions about the future of the reef.

"We are going to have a giant database with loads of information and it is going to be our job as scientists to try to tease out the key messages to try to tell people what we have found and why," says Mr Goldberg.

It is hoped the findings will be available by the end of 2013.

Find out more about the study on the CSIRO website.