Mackay-Whitsunday-Isaac Seagrass Monitoring 2017-2020: marine inshore south zone

• Main Authors: van de Wetering, C., Carter, A.B., Rasheed, M.A.
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: James Cook University 2021
• Subjects: Mackay; Pidgeon Island
• Online Access: https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/70923/1/Southern%20Mackay%20Whitsunday%20Isaac%20Seagrass%20Report%202020.pdf

This is the fourth consecutive year of annual seagrass monitoring for the southern marine zone in Mackay-Whitsunday-Isaac Healthy Rivers to Reef Partnership (HR2RP). There were favourable conditions for seagrass growth leading up to the 2020 survey, with no noteworthy natural or anthropogenic impacts in the region since the previous survey. The two large seagrass meadows along the mainland coast were in a similar condition to 2019 when they had shown a general improvement in meadow area and biomass from the initial seagrass monitoring conducted in 2017 following Cyclone Debbie. The smaller offshore meadow adjacent to Flock Pidgeon Island had a substantial decline in area from previous surveys. At this stage it is unclear if this is part of a normal range of change for this meadow. Despite the relatively low above-ground biomass and extremely thin leaf morphology of seagrasses throughout the region, there has been a continued presence of dugong feeding trails recorded across the initial 4 years of the monitoring program. These surveys are providing the baseline conditions to establish scores for future reporting in the HR2RP report card which will be available from 2021 after 5 years of baseline data has been collected.