Reef Life Survey (RLS) diver reeling in 50m transect tape after having used underwater visual census methods(uvc) methods to record fishes and invertebrates in the Houtman Abrolhos islands of Western Australia as part of the global RLS dataset. Divers carry camera and clipboard to record species (using waterproof paper). The Reef Life Survey program (http://reeflifesurvey.com/) is a volunteer network of highly trained divers, and is a product of the CERF Major Projects funding that facilitated a cost-effective citizen science contribution to inventory and monitoring of shallow water marine environments. The RLS program has been further facilitated within the NERP Hub, describing biodiversity patterns at a national and global scale, as well as providing critical baseline data from areas such as the new Coral Sea CMR, from Ashmore Reef, the Great Barrier Reef,and other Commonwealth CMR's such as the Cod Hole and Pimpernel Rock in NSW.