Port River and Barker Inlet Estuary: Monitoring and Restoring Seagrass Marine Mardi-grass University of Adelaide 10th December 2018 Purpose •Increase awareness and engage community with Estuary •Engage with complexity of Estuary • Industrial port, historic pollutant load, dredging • ‘Living system’ showing signs of healing • Poses risk re sea level rise and flooding •Nature-based responses to climate change Seagrass in Port River Zostera off Mutton Cove, August 2018; photos by Kym Murphy Three Projects •Seagrass monitoring in Port River – team in kayaks •Seagrass monitoring with AusOcean rigs •Seagrass restoration trial at Snowden’s north Thanks • Associate Professor Jason Tanner • Seagrass monitoring • Emma Daly, Port Adelaide Defence Shed & ECF volunteers • Alan Noble, AusOcean and Immanuel College • Seagrass restoration • Community NRM grant ($5K) and Coastal Participation grant ($3.45K) • OceanWatch, The Nature Conservancy and ECF volunteers Seagrass monitoring team training Kayak training at Garden Island with local kayak expert Peter Carter 7.5.18 Seagrass monitoring team training Introduction to seagrass monitoring, at Defence Shed with Jason Tanner 14.5.18 Seagrass monitoring sites Monitoring program •Learn from SeagrassWatch •Trial and error with methodology •Site by The Cutting proved too difficult to monitor by kayak •Minimise impact on seagrass Greg Penno & Emma Daly at Lipson Reach with seagrass shoes; photo by Ted Wojtkowski 26.11.18 Monitoring data – just beginning Data collected by Emma & team near Torrens Island Quarantine Station 29.10.18 Seagrass monitoring with AusOcean Seagrass monitoring with AusOcean Seagrass monitoring with AusOcean AusOcean rig on Windara reef Seagrass Restoration Trial Seagrass translocation 26.10.18 Seagrass Restoration Trial Seagrass Restoration Trial Seagrass Restoration - approvals •Deed of Indemnity – Flinders Ports •PIRSA Permit to Deposit Aquatic Resources •Clean recycled Pacific oyster shell from SA growers •DEW Permit to Collect Native Plant Material •Management Plan for host site Seagrass Restoration Trial Volunteers sort, bag and transport shell from Ardrossan 7.9.18 Seagrass Restoration Trial Bagged shell being transferring to site 10.10.18 Seagrass Restoration Trial Bagged shell being secured on site 10.10.18 Seagrass Restoration Trial One of three sets of bags deployed on site 10.10.18 and 26.10.18 Seagrass Host Site Photo by Emma Daly Seagrass Restoration Trial Photo by Emma Daly 26.10.18 Translocating seagrass across 3 sites, 26.10.18 Seagrass Restoration Trial – Results to date All bags remain in place and secure so far Northern site Middle site Southern site Deepest Shallowest 5 bags 6 bags 5 bags 26 Oct 2018 7 seagrass cores 7 seagrass cores 7 seagrass cores 11 Nov 2018 2 cores 3 cores 4 cores northern end southern end 9 Dec 2018 2 cores 1 core nil northern end southern end Next Steps – Monitoring •Continue monitoring TIQS & Lipson Reach by kayaks •Monitor east and west ends of The Cutting with AusOCean rigs •Monitor any impact during & after dredging – Flinders Ports (The Cutting) and Origin (TIQS) Other Possibilities •Deploy AusOcean rig near Bolivar outlet, with SA Water support •Create seagrass trail for kayakers with fixed photo points •AusOcean will be deploying additional rigs in Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island •Other ideas? Next Steps – Restoration project •Monitor trial and host site (Lipson Reach) •Consult with Jason Tanner about results •$1.2K still available •Potentially deploy further bags of shell and translocate more seagrass cores •Promote River ‘restoration’ to community .