Far North Queensland (Aust): 10 - 13 January 2009

With Cyclone Charlotte gaining strength in the Gulf of Carpentaria (north west Queensland) and the development of the monsoon trough, it was a challenging first monitoring event for 2009 at the start of the Wet season. It was also Richard Unsworth's first monitoring event as the newest member of Seagrass-Watch HQ.

With heavy rain settling in, estimating seagrass abundance was challenging at Green Island. Nevertheless, seasonally high abundances were observed. Catherine Collier and her team from James Cook University were also conducting research at Green Island as part of a collaborative project examining seagrass productivity and light requirements. Preliminary results from Catherine's leaf tagging (to measure leaf growth rates) indicate that Cymodocea rotundata on the reef flat was growing a centimeter or two a day. High growth rates support the observed high abundances.

	Green Island 10 January 2009
	Yule Point 12 & 13 January 2009

 

Thick cloud (remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Charlotte) over Northern Qld, announced the start of the Big WET.  Heavy rain, gales and storms, lashed the Cairns region, with over 375mm of rainfall in 24hrs.

The seagrasses at Yule Point have so far faired well and seasonally high abundances were observed. Large seed banks were also recorded, suggesting the meadow will be fairly resilient to any losses experienced over the coming wet season. The strong winds and waves had also dislodged a lot of macro-algae from the adjacent reef. A surprising find was large numbers of dead sea cucumbers, possible victims of the large volumes of freshwater dumped on the region. Most of the animals were around 10cm in length - possibly Holothuria scabra juveniles which are common on these meadows.

 

Townsville, Queensland (Aust): 10 - 12 January 2009

Midnight sampling and wild weather make for a challenging start to 2009 monitoring in Townsville.

Shelley Beach 10 January 2009

A good turn out of 11 people, led by Sue, monitored SB1 in the early hours of Saturday morning. With headlamps and torches in hands, the monitoring was successful. Unfortunately the blow outs still exist at this site so there were many quadrats with zeros but when there was seagrass it had increased in cover and quite a bit of water even though the tide was very low. Thank you to all those that came along for the adventure. Text: Naomi Smith, Seagrass-Watch HQ

 

 

	Bushland Beach 11 January 2009

 

There were 8 brave women that sampled at BB1, led by Jacky from Northern Beaches Rotary, in the early hours of Sunday morning. We had a little shower of rain but then a full moon shone down on us. Seagrass cover was on the rise and seeds were found. Thank you for the good night.

	Magnetic Is, MI2 11 January 2009

 

We were able to monitor MI2 during the day, but had to work quickly as the tide was only bootie height for about an hour, before it started coming back in. As always, this site is dominated by Cymodocea serrulata but there was an increase in Halodule uninervis recorded.

	Magnetic Is, MI1 12 January 2009

 

This was our last night time sampling and it was the wildest one, as we had wild winds and showers of rain to contend with. This site is dominated by wide and thin variations of Halodule uninervis and it was nice to find a few seeds all at the 50 m end of the transects. Thank you to Carla who came out to both of the Magnetic Island monitorings.

 

Chek Jawa (Singapore) : 10 January 2009

Our first monitoring session for 2009! And a small team head off for Chek Jawa on a breezy day. It was really windy, but it made for a pleasant cool day. Most of Chek Jawa is covered with Halophila ovalis and Halodule sp.

Shufen and Siti also found flowering Halophila ovalis (more images click here) .  But what was most delightful was the luxuriant and broad expanses of the beautiful Halophila spinulosa. Siti and the other volunteers tried out their underwater cameras to take photos of this beautiful seagrass.

I made a quick round of the Northern sand bar, specifically to see how the Halophila beccarii was doing. There were only a few patches of these tiny but tough seagrasses. Shufen checked the patch nearer the boardwalk and they too were being overgrown by the more abundant Halophila ovalis. Does Halophila beccarii do better when there is an influx of freshwater? Hmm...there's still a lot we need to find out about our seagrasses.  Text: Team Seagrass-Singapore. TeamSeagrass Website Click here . More images on Chek Jawa on Loh Kok Sheng's blog : Click Here

 

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