Seven enthusiastic volunteers met up early at the Tooradin picnic area car park on Saturday January 16th to try their hand at the new Sea Search program – Mangrove Monitoring.  Dressed in shorts, and a variety of footwear they were willing to share with the mud, participants were first given a run down on the monitoring plan which is designed to collect data on tree height, width, condition and associated animals and plants as a way to measure the health of the mangroves over time.

Volunteers found seedlings, seed pods, lots of crabs quickly scurrying to get into the safety of their burrows (sometimes stolen from other burrowing creatures), and were even lucky enough to see a mangrove seed that had just germinated onto the mud.  Despite it being a warm day, and many of us getting quite muddy, it was lots of fun, and having local, Harry Breidahl, on hand to share his fabulous knowledge on the Tooradin mangroves made the experience even more interesting.  

Mangroves are incredible trees, not only do they provide important habitat for birds (Westernport mangroves are listed under the International Ramsar Convention for protection of migratory birds) and juvenile fish, their leaves break down providing nutrients for a variety of animals.  Their physical structure is a force of stability, not only do mangroves stabilize sediment which reduces water turbidity (a problem for adjacent seagrass meadows), they can withstand severe storms preventing the erosion of land.

This was just the first of many Sea Search Mangrove Monitoring sessions to come in areas all over Westernport.  Watch this space or check out our events page for up coming Sea Search days.