Great Southern BioBlitz Day 2 Boat

Green Heroes is proud to be the official area coordinator for the Great Southern BioBlitz in our region, bringing this global biodiversity event to the shores and waters of Cook Island and the Fingal Head Peninsula.

The Great Southern BioBlitz is a spring snapshot of life across the entire Southern Hemisphere.

Over four days, people across Australia, New Zealand, South America and southern Africa record as much biodiversity as they can find and upload it to iNaturalist — building a single, shared picture of life across the southern hemisphere.

GSB 2026 runs Friday 27 to Monday 30 November, with a further 14 days afterwards to upload and identify everything recorded during the BioBlitz.

As the official area coordinator, Green Heroes is bringing this global biodiversity event to our local backyard — above and below the water at Cook Island and across the Fingal Head Peninsula.

Fish, invertebrates, corals, algae, birds, insects, plants and everything in between — if it lives here, we want it on the record.

For Day 2, we're swapping the reef for the river and heading out by boat to explore the mangrove-lined edges of the Tweed River.

This is a different kind of biodiversity adventure — one where the landscape itself becomes our guide.

We'll cruise slowly along the river's edges, exploring the places where land meets water, mangroves meet mudflats and freshwater meets the sea, searching for as much life as we can find.

And we're not going out with a checklist.

We're going out to see what surprises us.

Mangroves are extraordinary ecosystems. Their tangled roots provide shelter and nursery habitat for fish, crabs and other marine life, while the trees and surrounding mudflats attract an incredible variety of birds and other wildlife.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for:

• Waterbirds and shorebirds
• Crabs and other mangrove inhabitants
• Fish and marine life in the shallows
• Insects and other invertebrates
• Mangrove and coastal plants

Anything else that catches our eye

If we can see it, photograph it and identify it — it counts.

This is a BioBlitz, so there are no “wrong” things to find.

Look in the trees.
Look along the mudflats.
Look between the mangrove roots.
Look on the water.
Look up into the sky.

A bird flying overhead, a crab disappearing into the mud or a tiny insect resting on a leaf could all become another piece of the Tweed's biodiversity story.

Bring your camera or phone and photograph whatever you find.

You don't need to know what it is before you take the photograph.

That's part of the adventure.

We'll work together to identify our observations and upload them to iNaturalist, contributing to the Green Heroes biodiversity projects and the Great Southern BioBlitz.

Biodiversity doesn't stop at the edge of the reef.

The Tweed River is part of a much bigger interconnected ecosystem — linking rainforest, wetlands, mangroves, estuary, coastline and ocean.

By exploring these river-edge habitats, we're helping build a more complete picture of how much life exists between the river and the sea.

And because we're travelling by boat, we can explore stretches of habitat that aren't easily accessible from land.

Different habitat. Different perspective. More discoveries.

This is your chance to slow down, look closely and experience the Tweed River from a different perspective.

Bring your curiosity.

We'll bring the boat.

Let's see what the river has to reveal.

We'll meet at Salt & Stone Café, Fingal Head, before heading out on the Tweed River for our biodiversity adventure.

After exploring the mangroves and river edges, we'll return to Salt & Stone to upload our sightings, share what we discovered and enjoy a well-earned drink together.

And, of course, no Green Heroes expedition is complete without a little celebration! We'll finish with a few fun Biodiversity Awards recognising some of the day's most memorable discoveries.

Come explore the river with us — then stay for the stories, sightings and celebrations. 🌿🐦🚤