Pulau Semakau (Singapore): 26 July 2009

TeamSeagrass is back on Pulau Semakau today! Though the weather forecast was for a storm with thunder and lightning, and it got ominous as we started the ferry trip, we went ahead anyway. Aside from a few rumbles and light flashes in the sky, the weather seemed to have settled into a murky gloom when we arrived at our start point.

Today was a busy day at Pulau Semakau. A team of media people were on the shore and guided by Marcus Ng, also a TeamSeagrass member. Here's the line of visitors crossing the seagrass lagoon while the Team at Site 3 is at work (bottom left photo).   The seagrass meadows at Semakau are very much alive! And provide food and shelter for all kinds of animals.  For more pictures and interesting facts visit Team Seagrass Click Here

 

South Stradbroke, Gold Coast (Qld, Australia): 21 July 2009

 

 

Cullen Point, Mapoon (Qld, Australia): 23 July 2009

 

 

Napranum, Weipa (Qld, Australia): 21 July 2009

 

 

Archer Point, Cooktown (Qld, Australia): 20 July 2009

 

 

Far Nth Qld (Australia): 19 - 22 July 2009

 

Green Island Cairns: 19 July 2009

 

Great low tides greeted Seagrass-Watch HQ as it completed the third round of monitoring in the Wet Tropics for 2009.  Eight Seagrass-Watch sites were monitored over 4 days from Yule Point in the North to Mission Beach in the South (covering 200km of coastline).

It's the start of the Dry season in the southern Hemisphere tropics and also the scenescent (non-growing) season for seagrasses. Seagrass abundance is generally at its lowest for the year during the scenescent season.

At Green Island, the reeftop seagrass meadows were still abundant, and the layer of fine mud which covered the leaves (adhered to the epiphytes) was less obvious than in April. 

	Dunk Island Mission Beach: 20 July 2009

 

The reeftop meadows at Dunk Island appeared seasonally low in abundance.  The sites are on the edge of a large intertidal sand bar which connects Dunk Island to Kumboola Island during low tide.

	Lugger Bay Mission Beach: 21 July 2009

 

At Lugger Bay the Halodule uninervis meadows appeared to be seasonally low in abundance and dugong feeding trails were absent. It was the lowest daytime tide for the year and the full extent of the meadow was apparent. The inshore reefs immediately off the the sand banks were well exposed and many tourists were taking advantage of the low tides to explore he area.

Lugger Bay is close to the mouth of two rivers: the Tully and the Hull. The adjacent reefs are recognised as highly marginal (a reef occurring close to perceived environmnetl thresholds for coral survival) with levels of sediments and organic matter. Suspended sediment concentrations are very high in this location, primarily the result of resuspension from wind.

	Yule Point Cairns: 22 July 2009

 

The Yule Point Halodule uninervis meadows appeared to be seasonally low in abundance, however dugong feeding trails were still common across both sites.

 

Shelly Beach (Qld, Aust): 22 July 2009

The second site at Shelley Beach (SB2) was monitored on Wednesday 22nd July. The day started out as overcast and still but while we were out in the field turned into a sunny day with large wind gusts (which was hard to keep the paper on the clipboard!).

Accompanying me out in the field were fellow Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries staff members Cameron and Iony. We split up and monitored a transect each and then combined to do the seed cores. Halodule uninervis was the dominant species with patches of Halophila ovalis and Zostera capricorni present. Comparing our data with the monitor in May, it was found that the overall percent cover of seagrass was similar and there was a dramatic decrease in algae cover.

Also while the species composition stayed the same there was a noticed increase in HO, for example, along transect 1 in May only 6 out of the 11 quadrats recorded HO present while in July all 11 quadrats had HO present. Seeds were found in every core, same as in the May monitor. The next monitor is in October, I wonder what the species dynamic will be. Till then Happy Seagrassing!  Text: Naomi Smith, Seagrass-Watch HQ

 

Magnetic Island, Picnic Bay (Qld, Aust): 20 July 2009

The seagrass meadow at Picnic Bay (MI1) on Magnetic Island was monitored on Monday 20th July by Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries staff members Cam and myself and eager newbie volunteer Sue (my Mum!). We set up our three transects and got to work. We found the seagrass species of Halodule uninervis, Halophila ovalis, Thalassia hemprichii and one patch of Zostera capricorni present at our site.

Compared to the monitor in April - transect 1 had changed from very little fauna and absolutely no seagrass to quite a bit of animal life and a recording of ZC in one of the quadrats, while it was only 1% that was recorded the patch of ZC just off to the side of the quadrat was quite large. Transect 2 had decreased in percent seagrass cover while Transect 3 had similar seagrass coverage. No seeds were found this time. Thank you to Cam and Sue for a successful and enjoyable day. Text: Naomi Smith, Seagrass-Watch HQ

 

Magnetic Island, Cockle Bay (Qld, Aust): 07 July 2009

The July monitoring was somewhat similar to that of July 2008 but the normally low winter seagrass cover was even lower this year (around 12% overall compared with around 20% in 2008). This is in marked contrast to April 2009 at around 55%. The grass was very short. The thin coating of mud over most of the reef-flat noted in April and resulting from the extreme wet-season was still persistent and rather “anchored” by fine filamentous algae. Macro-algae were not much in evidence with only small patches of foliose reds and very small but frequent cryptic patches of Halimeda.

The reef-flat had conspicuous numbers of whelks and very numerous burrows - probably predominantly snapping shrimps judging by the very large amount of audible clicking. Text Dr Don Kinsey, U3A.  For more information on U3A, Click Here

 

Shelley Beach (Qld, Aust): 04 July 2009

It was a beautiful day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze, when we sampled our Seagrass-Watch site at Shelley Beach (SB1) on Saturday 4th July. While it was a busy weekend in Townsville our faithful volunteers of Mike, Lynda, Julia and Peter turned up eager to get out there.

All 6 pegs were visible and made the set up task quick and easy. We divvied up the equipment and set off on our tasks. When comparing our results with the April sampling, we found the same trends. That is, the seagrass percent cover along transect 1 and 2 increases as you go along the tape and transect 3 still had the lowest cover of all the transects.

Overall, it was observed that the seagrass percent cover had decreased. There were many sea hares observed in and around our transects and only 3 seed cores had seeds recorded in them.

This decrease in cover and lack of seeds could be due to seagrass’s seasonal pattern of growth where they tend not to grow in the winter time. It will be interesting to see what the meadow will look like in early October (our next sampling date!). Till then Happy Seagrassing! Text: Naomi Smith, Seagrass-Watch HQ

 

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Correct citation: McKenzie, LJ., Yoshida, RL. & Coles, RG. (2006 - 2012). Seagrass-Watch. www.seagrasswatch.org. 228pp. Disclaimer: The views expressed on this site are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Queensland Government. Website designed by McKenzie, LJ., Yoshida, RL.