JAWBONE MARINE SANCTUARY SEAGRASS MONITORING

The Friends of Jawbone were out in force with a few welcome extras we picked up along the way to monitor the seagrass beds at Jawbone in February.  A great crowd and a great effort.  A special thanks to Stephanie Mills and Hugh Kirkman who were busy comparing methods which will lead to making Sea Search seagrass monitoring the best it can be. 

CORNER INLET SEAGRASS MONITORING

February - Seagrass monitoring volunteers enjoyed the bath like conditions in Corner Inlet to help collect information about the Inlet’s important seagrass meadows. Over two days, two teams headed out to measure the health of seagrass at various locations around the Inlet, making the most of the 24oC water.
The survey successfully collected data on Broadleaf health seagrass from 12 locations, including eight new sites.
Twelve volunteers took part in the survey, learning new skills and seeing some of the amazing marine life in the Inlet, including nudibranchs, blubber jelly fish and pygmy cuttlefish. Detailed analysis of the data is still to be done, but the raw data shows most sites to be in reasonable health based on the number of shoots counted, seagrass length and the amount of epiphytes growing on the seagrass.
 
April  – A great weekend was held by all with perfect weather, calm seas and great fun.   Nine sites were surveyed over two days with 13 volunteers and 3 Parks Victoria staff!  A great effort and we thank everyone for their time and support.  There is now also a Corner Inlet Seagrass Monitoring Project Facebook page with lots of photos and info on the project you may wish to look at.  The next CI trip is scheduled for 22-23 May, competent snorkellers are welcome but some divers will be needed at the end of the day, please rsvp by Tuesday 18th May.  Thanks to Jonathon Stevenson from Parks Victoria and Rob Timmers from SEAL diving services.

RICKETTS POINT MARINE SANCTUARY INTERTIDAL MONITORING

Two corporate groups from Certified Practicing Accountants tried their hand at intertidal monitoring at both Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary and it’s reference site Black Rock with help from members of Marine Care Ricketts Point friends group in February.  Mentone Girls Grammar year Nine’s were back with their fabulous teacher and Sea Search supporter Kay McCullough to monitor their favourite part of RPMS – the Triangle Reef.  The girls also got to see the new Marine Education Centre run by MCRP and see their video on the marine sanctuary which was a great introduction to the sanctuary and to Sea Search.

MUSHROOM REEF MARINE SANCTUARY INTERTIDAL MONITORING

Nine Sea Searchers (new, regular and Friends of Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary) monitored the intertidal reef at Mushroom Reef Marine Sanctuary on a calm April day.  A big welcome and thank you to Brian Thomas from Parks Victoria who has taken over the Sea Search PV reins from Darren Mitchell.  A bit thank you to Darren for his long term support to Sea Search at Mushroom Reef.

POINT COOKE MARINE SANCTUARY INTERTIDAL MONITORING

Two surveys at Pt Cooke happened on April 17th and 19th.  The first by brand new friends group – Marine Care Point Cooke, we welcome them to Sea Search and they are already going great guns getting species inventories and surveys done in the sanctuary.  The second survey was at another site in the sanctuary done by our long term friends Melbourne Grammar Year 11 Environmental Science.   The boys found a very feisty European Shore Crab, and lots and lots of topshells.  Thank you to their dedicated teacher Kirsten Walker for getting the class involved every year.