Photo of Seagrass Bed at Manly

There are three monitoring periods per year (March/April, July/August and November/December). One monitoring session usually takes about two hours over low tide to complete, once you have become familiar with the methods.

Manual for Mapping & Monitoring

Introduction

Monitoring seagrass resources is important for two reasons: it is a valuable tool for improving management practices; and it allows us to know whether resource status and condition is stable, improving or declining. Successful management of coastal environments (including seagrass resources) requires regular monitoring of the status and condition of natural resources.

Early detection of change allows coastal management agencies to adjust their management practices and/or take remedial action sooner for more successful results. Monitoring is important in improving our understanding of seagrass resources and to coastal management agencies for:

• Exposing coastal environmental problems before they become intractable
• Developing benchmarks against which performance and effectiveness can be measured
• Identifying and prioritising future requirements and initiatives
• Determining the effectiveness of management practices being applied
• Maintaining consistent records so that comparisons can be made over time
• Developing within the community a better understanding of coastal issues
• Developing a better understanding of cause and effect in land/catchment management practices
• Assisting education and training, and helping to develop links between local communities, schools and government agencies
• Assessing new management practices

It is also important to realise that the reasons for monitoring will influence the monitoring plan and the methods used.

The Seagrass-Watch program originated from

• Community concerns about seagrass loss and habitat integrity
• Community interest in science, and
• DPI objectives in long term monitoring of critical fisheries habitats

Goals & Objectives

The goals of the Seagrass-Watch program are for:

• Governments to work intimately with communities
• To develop community participation and ownership
• Long-term & broad-scale monitoring of habitat, seasonal patterns, condition and trend data
• Become an early warning system of coastal environment changes
• Educate community on the importance of seagrass resources, and
• Raise community awareness of coastal management issues

The objectives of the Seagrass-Watch monitoring program include:

• Developing a simplified and effective monitoring protocol for community monitoring of seagrass habitats.
• To provide training to build the capacity of local communities in the use of the seagrass monitoring protocols and Seagrass-Watch.

To continue reading the Manual click or download individual pdf chapters below

CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO SEAGRASSES  chapter1.pdf 338.76 Kb
CHAPTER 2. THE MONITORING PROCESS  chapter2.pdf 286.04 Kb
CHAPTER 3. HOW TO START  chapter3.pdf 286.03 Kb
CHAPTER 4. SEAGRASS MAPPING & PRE-MONITORING PREPARATION  chapter4.pdf 555.20 Kb
CHAPTER 5. METHODS FOR MONITORING SEAGRASS STATUS  chapter5.pdf 855.65 Kb
APPENDIX I. DATA SHEETS  appendix1.pdf 504.12 Kb
APPENDIX II. SEAGRASS PERCENT COVER STANDARDS  appendix2.pdf 1.59 Mb
APPENDIX III. SEAGRASS IDENTIFICATION SHEETS & KEY  appendix3.pdf 466.14 Kb
APPENDIX IV. ALGAE PERCENT COVER STANDARD & IDENTIFICATION SHEETS  appendix4.pdf 2.13 Mb
APPENDIX V. SEAGRASS-WATCH MONITORING KIT  appendix5.pdf 191.44 Kb