Seagrass
Seagrass Monitoring
January 2011 dates
- Thursday January 6 – 5:15 am Port slipway
- Friday January 7 – 5:45 am Demco Beach car park
- Saturday January 8 – 6:15 am town Beach car park
Come and learn about a fascinating part of your local environment and contribute to its conservation.
WANDER OUT onto the mudflats of Roebuck Bay at low tide at the right time of year and you will find yourself surrounded by glittering emerald seagrass beds. Have a closer look and you will notice that these beautiful meadows are laden with the most fascinating marine fauna, and woven with the patterns of Dugong feeding trails. You will be experiencing first hand one of Roebuck Bay’s and the world’s most important natural resources.
A vital component of healthy marine ecosystems
SEAGRASS is a marine flowering plant found in oceans globally. It is vital to the health of marine ecosystems. About 75 percent of seagrass feeds bacteria, which are fundamental to the entire marine food chain. The other 25 percent of seagrass is eaten directly by animals such as Dugongs (which eat up to 40kg a day!), Green Turtles, snails and crustaceans.
Seagrass habitats are critical for biodiversity, with about 40 times more animals living in seagrass meadows than on bare sand. You just have to peer into a patch of Roebuck Bay seagrass and you’ll notice worms, sponges, shrimp, starfish, crabs, sea urchins and many other wonderful creatures.
Humans need seagrass too
Dugong feeding trails. © 2009 Fiona Bishop.
SEAGRASS PROTECTS coastlines from currents and erosion, and acts as a filter for toxic materials that may be released into the ocean. Seagrass is extremely valuable to recreational and commercial fisheries, providing a nursery and shelter for fish and shellfish such as snapper, mullet, emperors, sweetlips, bream, whiting, tailor, prawns, lobster, perch, flathead, luderick, pearl shell oysters and more: If you love seafood, you can thank seagrass!
Seagrass is also useful to coastal management planners because the health of seagrass meadows is an excellent indicator of the health of the coast in general, with early detection of change allowing agencies to adjust their management practices and take rapid remedial action. Finally, seagrass is important for a healthy climate, with studies finding that seagrass fixes as much carbon dioxide as tropical forests.
Threats
UNFORTUNATELY, seagrass around the world is vanishing at accelerating rates. Currently we lose a seagrass bed the size of a football field every half hour. Common causes of seagrass depletion include coastal development, dredging and pollution. In Roebuck Bay seagrass beds are threatened by increasing industrial and residential development in Broome, with coastal/storm water run-off risking an increase in nutrients in the water, which can cause algae such as Lyngbya to bloom, smothering the seagrass and preventing it from accessing sunlight. The steady increase in the use of the Bay by residents, industry and tourists is also a threat to seagrass: human activities such as speed-boating over the seagrass meadows, driving on the beds to launch boats, and the accumulative impact of propeller and anchor scars all threaten seagrass, as do the risk of fuel and oil spills.
Seagrass conservation on Roebuck Bay
The Broome Community Seagrass Monitoring Project is one of more than 300 seagrass monitoring projects globally that help to protect our seagrass resource. Three sites in Roebuck Bay are periodically monitored using the methods specified by Seagrass-Watch, the world’s largest global scientific, non-destructive seagrass assessment and monitoring program. Part of what makes this local project so special is that it engages the wider community as volunteer field workers, allowing everyday people to get involved in a robust scientific program that protects our coast. Families and individuals from a range of backgrounds gather data from quadrats, which are then entered into Seagrass Watch’s national database, contributing to the pool of global information being collected about seagrass, while also assisting coastal managers. The Broome Community Seagrass Monitoring Project is in the baseline collection phase; information collected during this stage will indicate natural trends and changes in seagrass cover across seasons.
Sponsors and Supporters
One of the youngest Roebuck Bay Seagrass Monitoring volunteers. © 2009 Fiona Bishop.
THE PROJECT enjoys the support of a range of stakeholders, including the Roebuck Bay Working Group and its membership, Seagrass-Watch, the Shire of Broome, the Kimberley Land Council, Yawuru PBC, WWF, as well as universities and scientists.
The project is co-managed by Environs Kimberley and the Department of Environment and Conservation, and is currently funded by Coastwest and the Port of Broome. For more information please see:
- Environs Kimberley
- Seagrass Watch
- seagrassmonitoring@gmail.com
- The Project Coordinator: phone 0400 665 524