Marine Seagrass a vital asset
Scientists and the general public are working together to study seagrass habitats, writes Don Alcock from the CRC Research Centre at James Cook University.
The Cairns Post, Tuesday, September 1, 1998, page 8
LOCAL commutrity groups are joining forces with marine scienlist to monitor changes in the growth,
distribution and compostion of what is probably Queensland's most important marine plant
CRC Reef researchers at the Queenslande Department of Primary industrie' Northern Fisheries Centre in Cairns are harnessing local knowledge to assist in mapping and monitoring seagrass habitats which are vital for fish, prawns, turtles and dugongs.
In a collabrative effort with government agencies and regional communities, they have recently been helped with a Federal Government Natural Heritage Trust Grant of $350,668 through Coast and Clean Seas proram.
The funding will support community-based seagrass-Watch projects in the whitsunday and Hervey Bay regions with support from regional staff at the Queensland Departments of Environment and Heritage, and Primary Industries.
It is expected the program will expand to Cairns and Port Douglas later this year. Seagrass-Watch is a new program being developed with assistance by the CRC Reef Research Centre, community groups and volunteers. The aim of Seagrass-Watch is for community groups and volunteers to collect quality information on changes in seagrass meadow characteristics, such as the extent of coverage. position
and depth of habitat, species composition, estimates of biomass, presence of dugong feeding trails and possible human impacts.
"Seagrass-Watch programs will establish a reliable. early warning system on the status of our seagrass resources, and a broad measure of changes in these resources," says senior research scientist Len McKenzie of the Seagrass Ecology Group. "Often, it is the residents of an area who have lived in the same place for many years that can provide the most precise information about changes to the marine environtnent." he said.
In 1998. the Seagrass Ecology Group conducted the first in a series of training sessions for interested community members to develop Seagrass-Watch. Guildlines amd scientific protocols for
long-term monitoring of Hervey Bay's seagrass resources were developed witth local QDEH staff and volunteers from the Seagrass and Dugong Monitoring Program. Participants were trained to identify local seagrass species, undertake rapid visual assessment methods, preserve seagrass samples for a herbarium and collect data for interpretation in a Geographic Information System (GPS).
"After training, volunteers and community groups are able to collect data from their region that
will now give resource managers an indication of the extent of seagrass resources," Mr McKenzie
said. "They can also identify any areas of loss which may need particular attention.
Co-ordin;ltor of thc Hervey Bay Seagrass and Dugong Monitoring Program, Jerry Comans, says grassroots action began in 1997 following a public meeting of concerned residents.
"We wanted to know why it was taking so long for the seagrasses to recover from the 1992 floods that killed off nearly 1000 sq km of meadows" he said. "With the subsequent 40 per cent drop in commercial net catches from the area and concern over the dugongs food source, we wanted to do something about it.'' Mr Comans, a retired charter boat operator with more than 30 years experience in the region, helped form the group to better understand and conserve marine resources.
"Without seagrass, Hervey Bay would be a desert," he said. "The DPI team have been great- really adding quality science to help us manage and protect seagrass meadows. We have now mapped most of the intertidal areas between Burrum Heads and Point Vernon. Each week, we've been out taking site transects and photographs to send up to Cairns DPI with our data sheet."
"Commercial and recreational fishers have been seeing more dugong from their boats recently and we are expecting them to move closer inshore as many of
the meadows have now recovered."he said. Community groups and secondary schools in the Whitsunday and the Hervey Bay regions will begin formal training on seagrass mapping and monitoring in 1999.
Aboriginal and Islander communities and volunteer groups in other areas along the Queensland coast are also asking for assistance in monitoring techniques. A
newly appointed Seagrass-Watch co-ordinator is helping to develop the program State-wide and a training manual and video is being produced.
Overseas interest in the CRC Reef and DPI seagrass monitoring methods has grown. The Seagrass Ecology group recently conducted similar training sessions
to seagrass and fisheries scientists and marine park staff in Thailand. Their mapping techniques and project management skills are now recognised as an
Australian standard with interntional export potential.
The success of the monitoring program depends on considerable input and feedback from community volunteers. Seagrass-Watch aims to be user-friendly with simple field sampling methods, uncomplicated data recording and handling and prompt follow-up from the co-ordinator to ensure information is fully used in coastal zone management for continuous good health of fisheries and dugong populations.
Picture:(top): WORKING togetner: (from left) Len McKenzie, Rob Coles, Michael Rasheed and Warren Lee Long sort through seagrass brought in for studying at Northern Fisheries Centre
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