Townsville (Qld): 29 - 31 January 2010

	Shelley Beach SB1 & SB2 29 & 31 Jan 2010
	Magnetic Island MI1 & MI2 30 Jan 2010

Yule Point (Cairns, Qld): 29 January 2010

Chek Jawa (Singapore): 16 January 2010

Happy New Year from TeamSeagrass as we start our first monitoring session at Chek Jawa for 2010! It was really nice to see some familiar faces back with us after a long absence. And we also welcomed some new members on the Team! The seagrass meadows of Chek Jawa are doing just fine. It's just that our monitoring sites seemed to have missed the 'good parts'. But this is why our data will help show how seagrasses 'move' about on the intertidal. Also spotted was a Noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis) laying her egg capsules! While we were monitoring, a few Team members led by Andy headed out to the shore next to House No. 1 to remove some abandoned driftnets.They dragged up 14 piles of driftnets! And there's still MORE to clean up! Oh dear. These are NEWLY abandoned driftnets as this part of the shore had already been cleared in Sep 09 as part of International Coastal Cleanup Singapore... For more pictures and interesting facts visit Team Seagrass Click Here

Broome (WA, Australia): 03 - 05 January 2010

Nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, crabs, sea snakes and feather stars were just some of the living marine treasures found in the seagrass meadows of Roebuck Bay during our monitoring events on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. This season the seagrass coverage at two of the three sites was looking thick and luscious. Its seems some dugongs thought so too, if their multiple feeding trails were anything to go by! At the other site an interesting halimeda or cactus algae was a regular feature in our quadrats. Two of the sites had a significant increase in lyngbya (blue green algae), with the bloom even more evident along the seagrass meadow edge which we crossed on our way to the sites. Another new feature in our quadrats was some curious spots on some of the Halophila ovalis leaves - I look forward to investigating further to find out what they are (gastropod eggs perhaps?).

I would like to thank all the volunteers who came seagrass monitoring. It was one of the highest turn-outs we've seen - we even made a new record, with 21 people attending at the Demco site! Lucky I baked extra muffins! Your enthusiasm is inspiring, and your dedication is deeply valued. Its great to know that increasing numbers of people in our community are gaining a more profound appreciation for the importance of our seagrass meadows. I hope you found it an invigorating way to start your year, and that you will enjoy the feeling of knowing that you've contributed to a scientific monitoring process which helps to protect this precious ecosystem. Thank you especially to those volunteers who have previously trained in Seagrass Watch methodology and who were able to bring their skills to the monitoring process, and help newcomers learn - its great to see community capacity developed in this way. Text by Fiona Bishop (Coordinator, Environs Kimberley Seagrass Monitoring Project)