WHITSUNDAY water quality has been given a boost, with nearly half-a-million dollars being put towards water-quality research.

Last week, Tourism Whitsundays chairman Allen Grundy announced the Federal Department of Environment had co-funded $498,000 with Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University for a two-year project, which started in February, that will focus on water-quality issues around the Whitsunday islands.

"The most important thing for us is the travellers - in particular international travellers - who come to the Whitsundays to see the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday islands, and what's happening is those guests come here and have an expectation for what we're going to deliver,” MrGrundy said.

"The expectation they have is when we go to take them snorkelling or scuba diving, the visibility will be reasonable.

"Some days the visibility can be 3m and others it can be 15m, so by doing research and having money to do it, we'll better understand all the hydrology - so how the currents and oceans move - and a better understanding of where sediment loads come from.

"We want more days when the water is really clear, but for that we need to understand the dynamics of what's happening with our quality, and up until this point we haven't really had any thorough studies to do that.”

Mr Grundy attended a Mackay Whitsundays Healthy Rivers to Reef Project management committee meeting in Mackay last Wednesday.

He said the government funding was a big step forward.

"For the last two years, I have spent many hours on this project, including lobbying for studies into the water quality in the Whitsundays,” he said.

"During a meeting with Federal Environment Minister (Josh) Frydenberg in Canberra in November, I discussed the concerns regarding large gaps in scientific research and understanding of the water-quality issues around the Whitsunday islands.”

On March 14 Mr Grundy is due to meet with Mark Baird, senior coastal modeller at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship.