Chek Jawa (Singapore): 27 June 2009

Bright and early this morning, we're back on Chek Jawa to see how things are growing there. We've got our spiffy "Seagrass Monitoring in Progress" banner up to tell visitors what we're doing and how they too can join us to make a difference for our shores! The seagrasses are thick all the way from the sand bar near the beacon to the high shore near the boardwalk. Also on the sand bar, in the thick carpet of grass was an odd wiggly bare patch. Could it be a dugong feeding trail?. For more pictures and interesting facts visit Team Seagrass Click Here

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Tuas (Singapore): 25 June 2009

This is the 2nd monitoring session in Tuas this year. Today the tide was really really really good and we could see many many many marine creatures. As usual for the tuas site, we usually have a short recap of the monitoring technique to be used before we start the monitoring. We were at first so worried about the weather as it was pouring yesterday but today it was fine! I must say the seagrass growing near the fenceline were really big and fat and that is a good sign as it shows that the marine ecosystem is doing pretty well in the Tuas area. After 30 mins of monitoring, we started our marine creature treasure hunt!. For more pictures and interesting facts visit Team Seagrass Click Here

Lion Village, Phra Thong Island (Thailand): 23-24 June 2009

Villagers of Lion set up their first Seagrass-Watch monitoring site on the island of Phra Thong. Near our monitoring site we have seen 5 species. Halophila ovalis is dominant in upper intertidal areas, but Halophila beccarii is also abundant. The monitoring technique was quickly grasped, and we proceeded easily along the transects. Only two seagrass species were encountered in the quadrats, Halophila ovalis and Halophila beccarii. Text Barry Bendell

Goold Island (Qld, Australia): 23 June 2009

Girrigun rangers, Traditional Owners and a couple Park’s rangers and I visited Goold Island on Tuesday June 23, do some seagrass monitoring. It was a great trip over in the barge. While we waited for the tide to drop we inspected some weed control work that the rangers had been doing and looked at the fish trap. As low tide approached we went out and did our thing. Text: Jane Mellors (Seagrass-Watch HQ)

Sentosa (Singapore): 10 June 2009

At the crack of dawn, TeamSeagrass is out on Sentosa to monitor the seagrasses there. We have lots of first timers today. Fortunately, Sentosa is less difficult to monitor and also, there were regulars to help introduce the methods to the new team members.

After a quick briefing by Wei Ling and Siti, the Team is off to do the random sampling method (because the shore is narrow). This means no laying out of the tape and thus it's much faster to do. This last stretch of natural shores on Sentosa has lots of Enhalus acoroides and Halohila ovalis. These two kinds of seagrasses are easy to tell apart so Sentosa is not too difficult to monitor. Although the bewildering variety of seaweeds sometimes can be confusing. After the monitoring, the Team headed off to explore the living reefs on this shore. For more pictures and interesting facts visit Team Seagrass Click Here

Torres Strait (Qld, Australia): 27 May - 04 June 2009

Mabuiag Island:

27 May 2009

All the rangers participated in the monitoring, despite their heavy work schedules and the number of people visiting the island. Seagrass cover appeared sparser and with no obvious Enhalus fruits like last monitoring. Fresh wrack was very obvious along the beach. During this trip we also trialled some equipment in relation to subtidal monitoring. Whle not a raving success, the trials proved promising. We also took time out to address the school assembly about our seagrass monitoring and distribute some dugong masks. With State of Origin fever running high on the island it was not surprising to see some of the colours used to decorate the masks. For more information on Seagrass-Watch education: Click Here All Torres Strait text: Jane Mellors (Seagrass-Watch HQ)


	Front Beach, TI2 : 30 May 2009

The weather though windy did allow the tide to drop sufficiently to allow sampling to occur. This is the second time this cohort of students have monitored Front Beach, so with a quick refresher on seagrass id - it was game on. Transect 2 had seagrass the whole way along it but transects 1 and 3 had very little seagrass present at the start. Seed counts were noticeably down. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.


	Back Beach, TI1 : 01 June 2009

We had a great turn out with 10 people turning up to monitor. This site still poses a challenge in terms of some people keeping their feet on top of the sediment and also the mental arithmetic involved with species composition, with the majority of quadrats having 4 species present.

After a couple of false starts (Question: Where are the field guides? Answer: Up by the car. Comment: Not much use there!), monitoring went smoothly. Quite a bit of the seagrass plants showed signs of being burnt.

Previously in the day we had a quick school visit to talk to Grade 2 Dhangal (Dugong) students about seagrass habitat. These students certainly know why seagrasses are important, and excitedly got into colouring their dugong masks. For more information on Seagrass-Watch education: Click Here


	Hammond Is : 02 June 2009

Again another fantastic turn out. The school boat took us over to Sebasio Village, Hammond Island, where we were off-loaded onto the reef crest. Working across the meadow into our site it was obvious that our site was in a hollow. So while the surrounding meadow was nice and dry our site was in around 11cm of water. This made taking quadrat photographs quite challenging.

The meadow was blanketed in a matte of blue green algae. Underneath this matte the seagrass appeared healthy with little epiphyte cover. Returning to Thursday Island was quite an event with the wind blowing the boat onto the reef and some members (namely Jane) making quite a show of getting back onto the boat- not sure if she was auditioning for the funniest home video!

Earlier in the day we visited Tagai College Secondary Campus and ran the Year 10 Marine Studies Class through some seagrass IDs. For more information on Seagrass-Watch education: Click Here


	Horn Is : 04 June 2009

Another fabulous turn out for monitoring our muddy site on Horn Island, HI1. We even recruited some of the younger students (Anna and Leanna) from the high school, who remember doing Seagrass-Watch when they were in Primary School. The seagrass was looking distinctly burnt on the tips within our site, particularly the larger species Thalassia and Zostera. Monitoring was done in quick smart time so that we were able to catch the next ferry back to Thursday Island.



	Seagrass Education in Torres Strait: 27 May- 02 June 2009

Mabuiag Island 27 May 2009	Grade 2 Dhangal (Dugong) students 01 June 2009	Mabuiag Island 27 May 2009

Tagai College Secondary (10 Marine Studies Class) 02 June 2009	Tagai College Secondary (10 Marine Studies Class) 02 June 2009	Tagai College Secondary (10 Marine Studies Class) 02 June 2009