Seagrass-Watch Proceedings of a workshop for monitoring seagrass habitats in the Port Curtis Coral Coast region Gidarjil Devel Corp Ltd offices, Gladstone, Queensland 9-11 February 2021 Len McKenzie & Rudi Yoshida First Published 2021 Seagrass-Watch HQ Copyright protects this publication. Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non- commercial purposes is authorised without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Disclaimer Information contained in this publication is provided as general advice only. For application to specific circumstances, professional advice should be sought. Seagrass-Watch HQ has taken all reasonable steps to ensure the information contained in this publication is accurate at the time of the survey. Readers should ensure that they make appropriate enquires to determine whether new information is available on the particular subject matter. The correct citation of this document is McKenzie, LJ & Yoshida, R.L. (2021). Seagrass-Watch: Proceedings of a workshop for monitoring seagrass habitats in the Port Curtis Coral Coast region. Gidarjil Devel Corp Ltd offices, Gladstone, Queensland, 9 - 11 February 2021. (Seagrass-Watch HQ, Cairns). 51pp. Produced by Seagrass-Watch HQ Front cover photos (left to right): seagrass on Lillies Beach sand flat (Boyne Island) with Zostera muelleri spathes in the foreground (Aug19, by Rudi Yoshida); monitoring at Lillies Beach (Aug19, by Len McKenzie); and dense Zostera muelleri on intertidal bank in Round Hill Creek, 1770 (Mar17, by Lucas Langlois). Enquires should be directed to: Seagrass-Watch Ltd PO Box 4 Clifton Beach QLD 4879 AUSTRALIA [email protected] Table of Contents OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................ 5 WORKSHOP TRAINERS ............................................................................................................................ 7 LEN MCKENZIE ................................................................................................................................................... 7 RUDI YOSHIDA .................................................................................................................................................... 7 AGENDA - LEVEL 1 (BASIC) ..................................................................................................................... 8 TUESDAY 9TH FEBRUARY 2021 (GIDARJIL OFFICES, GLADSTONE) ................................................................................... 8 WEDNESDAY 10TH FEBRUARY 2021 (GIDARJIL OFFICES GLADSTONE & LILLIES BEACH) ..................................................... 8 THURSDAY 11TH FEBRUARY 2021 (GIDARJIL OFFICES, GLADSTONE) ............................................................................... 8 ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................ 9 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 10 SEAGRASS IN THE PORT CURTIS CORAL COAST REGION ................................................................... 17 SEAGRASS-WATCH IN THE PCCC REGION ..................................................................................................... 19 GLADSTONE HARBOUR ........................................................................................................................................... 19 RODDS BAY .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 ROUND HILL CREEK ............................................................................................................................................... 23 GREAT BARRIER REEF MARINE MONITORING PROGRAM ............................................................................................... 24 A GUIDE TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF SEAGRASSES OF THE PORT CURTIS CORAL COAST ............... 26 PARTS OF A SEAGRASS PLANT ............................................................................................................. 28 MONITORING A SEAGRASS MEADOW ................................................................................................. 30 MONITORING SEAGRASS .................................................................................................................................... 31 SEAGRASS-WATCH ............................................................................................................................................ 31 EACH SAMPLING EVENT ..................................................................................................................................... 35 AT COMPLETION OF MONITORING ...................................................................................................................... 36 MAKING A HERBARIUM PRESS SPECIMEN ............................................................................................ 39 COLLECTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 PRESSING ........................................................................................................................................................... 39 HERBARIA ......................................................................................................................................................... 41 UNDERSTANDING SEDIMENT ............................................................................................................... 42 SEAGRASS CONSERVATION .................................................................................................................. 44 THREATS TO SEAGRASS HABITATS ..................................................................................................................... 44 MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................................................. 44 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 47 3 Gidarjil Development Corp Limited offices, 28 Beckinsale Street, Gladstone City QLD 4680 Telephone: (07) 4972 8646 Lillies Beach (Boyne Island) field exercise, located 27km south of Gidarjil Gladstone offices via Gladstone Benaraby Rd/State Route 58 (approx 30min drive). Field site 6.5km via 4WD (permit only) from beach access. 4 Port Curtis Coral Coast, 9-11 February 2021 Overview Seagrass-Watch is a global seagrass observing network, where scientists, coastal managers and local stakeholders from across the globe collaborate to assess the status of their seagrass meadows to provide an early warning of coastal ecological decline. The program started in 1998 in Australia, using standardised global monitoring protocols, and has so far expanded to include 424 sites across 21 countries. Anyone can participate in Seagrass-Watch, as it responds to local needs, and includes some elements of citizen science. Seagrass-Watch is a monitoring program that brings people together for seagrass conservation. Seagrass-Watch implements a globally standardised seagrass assessment and monitoring protocol, that has a rigorous quality assurance and quality control procedure to ensure data is of the highest quality and that time and resources are not wasted. The only condition is that on-ground data collection must be overseen by a qualified scientist or trained and competent participant (18 years or over). The program identifies areas important for seagrass species diversity and conservation. The information collected can be used to assist the management of coastal environments and to prevent significant areas and species being lost. 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, and assessing new management practices. Seagrass-Watch