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Noosa, Qld (Australia): 24-26 April 2013Although it may seem that we have been a bit quiet lately, the fact is that we've been getting on with the job! A big thankyou to the brave and fearless volunteers who assisted in our first round of Noosa River seagrass monitoring. During the second week of April a group of four newly trained volunteers groundtruthed the sites on kayak near Goat Is and the ferry crossing. In less than ideal conditions- drizzle, wind, low vis in a not-so-low tide, we discovered signs of eroding banks and inconsistencies in the mapping. Seagrass is a marine plant species that rely on photosynthesis, so eroding banks are an issue due to the resulting excess fine sediment in the water reducing potential light available. Two weeks later during ideal conditions- great weather and tides less than 0.4m- an enthusiastic contingent of volunteers monitored 3 replicate sites in Weyba Creek near Keyser Island and Hay Island; that is a total of 9 transects, all 50m long! The data collected by NICA is collated and sent to Seagrass-Watch (international seagrass monitoring program), based at James Cook University. An added bonus was the amount of interest from University Sunshine Coast student teachers, who have been studying the program for inclusion in the new school science curriculum; and students from Pittsworth High School (near Toowoomba), who were on an excursion to the coast to study the environment. They were able to understand the impacts of land management practises in the upper catchment influencing our marine environment...Text: Maree Prior (NICA)
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Cape York, Qld (Australia): 23-27 April 2013Seagrass at Yum Yum was in good condition, with similar species and cover as previously sampled in May 2012. The Site was heavily grazed by turtle particularly Enhalus acoroides
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Seagrass cover and condition was similar to the last sampling event in May 2012. There was heavy epiphyte cover on seagrass around mangroves on Fisher Island next to site 2.
There was a lot more Halodule uninervis observed than two previous monitoring events. Seagrass ( HO and Hu ) was even present on previous bare sand. There were lots of dugong feeding trails. Fairly high epiphyte cover along with sediment cover on HO.
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Seagrass similar condition (species and cover) as previously sampled in May 2012. Large dugong feeding trails observed.
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Similar to previous monitoring. Additional species observed than previous (Enhalus acoroides). Lots of giant clams were observed.
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Townsville, Qld (Australia): 23-27 April 2013
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Far North, Qld (Australia): 22-25 April 2013
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Pioneer Bay, Whitsunday (Australia): 25 April 2013
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Fitzroy, Qld (Australia): 06-09 April 2013
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Whitsunday, Qld (Australia): 05-08 April 2013
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Noosa, Qld (Australia): 09-10 March 2013It was the first time that a Seagrass-Watch workshop had been run in the Noosa region. Participants were from NICA volunteers and the Great Sandy Strait. The Level 1 workshop, held on Saturday 09 March, provided training for new participants and a refresher for some long-term participants. Classroom and laboratory sessions were conducted at the CWA Hall, 123 Poinciana Avenue, Tewantin and the field session was at held at Keyser Island, Noosaville (KY2). Apart from learning how to monitor and identify the seagrass species in their region, participants also identified the top 5 reasons why seagrass are important and the top 5 threats to seagrass in their region.
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The course finished off with the field component which was held at Keyser Island, where participants monitored a new site at KY2. Seagrass-Watch HQ would like to thank all those who attended the workshop. The workshop was supported by Noosa Integrated Catchment Association Inc, Caring for our Country & Noosa Biosphere Ltd, local coordination by Maree Prior and Seagrass-Watch HQ.
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Far North Qld (Australia): 10 - 11 January 2013
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Townsville (Australia): 09 - 11 January 2013
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