In May/June 2023, Parks Australia undertook a 14-day voyage in the Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP), to assess the health of islands, islets and cays in the southern, eastern and central regions of the CSMP.

The cays visited and assessed were: Herald Beacon Islet (Mellish Reef), North Cay (Mellish Reef), East Diamond Islet (Tregrosse Reefs), South Islet (Willis Islets), North East Cay (Herald Cays), Chilcott Islet (Coringa Islets) and Magdelaine Cay South (Magdelaine Cays).

Staff from Parks Australia, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QPWS), Tangaroa Blue Foundation, and botanist volunteers performed the following tasks:

description and mapping of vegetation communities
establishing permanent vegetation health monitoring sites
compiling comprehensive plant species lists
collecting soil and plant samples
obtaining high resolution drone photogrammetry of cays and their adjoining reefs
collecting data on bird breeding, population demographics and species diversity
surveying for introduced and invasive species
removing marine debris and recording source data
understanding of island and cay geomorphology.