Adopt a Conch! Read all about Seagrasses in Lac Bay • Why this information about seagrass? • What seagrasses can we find in Lac • More seagrasses and...food • Worldwide seagrass information • How to reach involved organisations These infosheets are donated by the Bon Kousa Foundation Bonaire | www.bonkousa.org Adopt a Conch! Why this information about seagrass? In addition to the constant care of STINAPA and the Mangrove Center, two important conservation projects are happening in the Bonaire Lac Bay Area today: the Conch Restoration Project and the Seagrass Protection Project. For both projects the seagrass beds in Lac are vital for the health and existence of the animals they protect. Seagrass is often overlooked, both literally and figuratively. We walk through it without real- izing we are seriously damaging the grass, and we see it as “just grass” whereas actually it is a very important living environment for many spe- cies. The Conch Restoration Project would like to offer you these information sheets to read, with production made possible through donations to the Adopt-a-Conch! program. The Conch Restoration Project consists of both an extensive awareness campaign for children and adults plus a scientific research program. A team of scientists is gathering information on the habitat and the queen conch stock. Last year an inventory was made of conch in Lac Bay. Almost all conch are tagged in order to identify and follow growth and migration or movements of the queen conch and its habitat during the project. The conch will be monitored regarding reproduction and health. This must lead to a strategy to restore the conch population to old levels, based on verified data of the population of conch in Lac Bay. To inform the Bonaire visitor of the conch restoration program the Bon Kousa Foundation started the awareness program ‘Adopt-a-Conch!’ Please participate in helping the conch: you can adopt your own individu- ally numbered conch and give it a pet-name!! For more info please visit www.conchbonaire.org The Conch Restoration Program is one of IUCN ‘what if we change’ projects, funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery. The project in Lac Bay Bonaire is managed by DCNA and Stinapa. The Seagrass Protection Project is a program of Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire. Stinapa provides important support to the project. The Conch Restoration Program also works on seagrass protection and restoration. ‘Ban trese Karkó bèk!’ Adopt a Conch ! ‘Let’s bring back the conch!’ You can help protect the Leave them alone so we will Queen Conch by adopting have more in the future one of our tagged conch Give the conch a chance to in Lac Bay Bonaire. grow up and reproduce. For more information If you see someone taking conch Adopt a Conch! please visit our website: please phone STINAPA Dear Visitor and Dive friend!! The Queen Conch is endangered species on Bonaire.You can help protect the Queen Conch by adopting one of our at 7171-8444 or 786-9603 scientifi cally tagged conches in Lac Bay Sorobon Bonaire. For more info go to our website: www.conchbonaire.org www.conchbonaire.org www.conchbonaire.org Donated by the Bon Kousa Foundation Bonaire | www.bonkousa.org These infosheets are donated by the Bon Kousa Foundation Bonaire | www.bonkousa.org Adopt a Conch! What seagrasses can we find in Lac? Thalassia testudinum - turtle grass Thalassia - with turtlegrass anemone Ruppia maritima -wigeon grass Syringodium filiforme - manatee grass Photo: Sabine Engel Photo: Sabine Engel Photo: Flickr Photo: Flickr A broad leaved grass; with rhizomes and seasonally Without this seagrass Lac would look totally different Ruppia maritima is a thread-thin, grasslike annual or This seagrass can easily be recognized; it looks like small white green flowers. Its main way of expansion as it traps a lot of sediments and stabilize the sub- perennial herb which grows from a rhizome, a creep- strands of spaghetti underwater. The blades can be is through the growth of rhizomes or root-stalks. The strate. Juvenile fish can be found here: it is an impor- ing rootstalk. It produces a long, narrow, straight up to 30 cm long. Like other seagrasses this species leaves can be over 1 cm broad and over 30 cm long. It tant nursery area. Often overlooked but extremely or loosely coiled cluster of flowers tipped with two has flowers and is anchored in the bottom through a occurs in sheltered lagoons and in clear water can be important is its capacity to sequester carbon dioxide, tiny flowers. The plant often self-pollinates, but also network of rhizomes. found at up to 30m deep. one of the culprits of climate change. It can with- releases pollen that floats away on bubbles. stand exposure to air; the seagrassbeds don’t suffer Again, for propagation the growth of the rhizomes is This is the most common seagrass species on Bonaire, too much when the water is extremely low. The fruits are small in the form of a drop with a fleshy more important than the reproduction through the and very important in the diet of turtles. In Lac Bay outside and the seed inside (like cherries). They are flowers. are extensive beds of this species. In our research we However, they don’t do well dispersed in the water and inside the guts of fish and found Thalassia testudinum in 199 out of 264 m2 of with trampling and destruc- waterbirds that eat them. The plant also reproduces In terms of cover, food source and nursery area this our survey. Turtle grass also provides nutrition to the tion of rhizomes by people vegetatively by sprouting from its rhizome. species is not as important as the turtle grass. Mana- conch. They don’t eat the leaves themselves, except walking through the grass, the tee’s don’t occur here, but turtles eat it, and conch sometimes decaying leaves, but feed on all the small keels of windsurf boards or the This plant is an important part of the diet of many use it as well. plants and animals that are attached to the leaves. propellers of outboards. For species of waterfowl. In many areas, wetlands restora- this reason part of the seagrass tion begins with the recovery and protection of this And there is lot growing on those leaves, tiny plants near the popular beaches at plant. On Bonaire the plant only occurs at the outer and tiny animals. The least pleasant of them maybe Thalassium flower Sorobon have been protected, edges of Lac Bay in the ponds in the back of the man- being the turtlegras anemone, Viatrix globulifera, and turnaround buoys have been deployed near the groves. In terms of cover it is not significant. whose sting will itch for a couple of days! mangroves where the area is shallow. These infosheets are donated by the Bon Kousa Foundation Bonaire | www.bonkousa.org Adopt a Conch! More about seagrasses & food! Halodule beaudettei - shoal grass Halophila stipulacea - halophila Food for Queen Conch Food for Turtles Photo: Encyclopedia of life Photo: Sabine Engel Photo: Sabine Engel Photo: Flickr Shoalgrass forms very fine plants, with small and thin This is a species that originates from the Western The queen conch uses the seagrass beds in different In the oceans, sea turtles, especially green sea turtles, leaves, and only occurs at a couple of places in Lac, in Indian Ocean: Red Sea and East Africa, Persian Gulf, to ways. They hide in them from predators, the conch are one of the creatures (manatees, but also sea the very shallow areas. southwestern coast of India, but ‘invaded’ the Medi- shell blending in perfectly with the sandy substrate, urchins and herbivorous fish are others) that eat the terranean after the opening of the Suez Channel. and the grass hiding their size. seagrass that grows on the sea floor. Halodule beaudettei is capable of both sexual and vegetative reproduction. However, flowering in this And recently, after 2003, it has been found in the And of course it is an important food source. Not so Beds of healthy seagrass are essential breeding and species is thought to be extremely rare. Halodule Caribbean, where it is becoming a pest. On Bonaire it much the grass itself, though they will nibble on an development areas for many species of fish and other beaudettei does not grow well in established beds has firs been spotted in 2010, and we see it spreading old piece of grass. Queen conch scrape the algue of marine life. A decline or loss of seagrass beds would of Thalassia, but can quickly invade an area where rapidly. the grass, and that is their main source of nutrition. damage these populations, triggering a chain reac- Thalassia was removed. In areas where Ruppia was It is a symbiosis, the conch gets the food, the grass tion and negatively impacting marine and human dense, Halodule and Syringodium were sparse. Dense Another species in this genus, Halophila johnsonii gets cleaned up, and the chlorophyl can catch more life. beds of Halodule can be found in high salinity areas is a threatened species. This species however, is not sunlight. where Thalassia and Syringodium are not found. threatened but a threat in itself. In its native area it forms a food source for invertebrates and fish. We Turtles love it, but it forms only a small part of their don’t know yet what the impact will be here: will diet on Bonaire. it compete with turtlegrass? Will turtles and other fauna start to feed on it? These infosheets are donated by the Bon Kousa Foundation Bonaire | www.bonkousa.org Adopt a Conch! Worldwide seagrass information What are seagrasses? like fish and shellfish.