State School Students Contribute To Seagrass Study

A Coastal Marine Ecosystem Research Centre (CMERC) study enlisted the help of Cannonvale State School students and Whitsunday locals last weekend with the goal of educating the community on the importance of seagrass.

The Seagrass Restoration Community Event led by a CMERC PHD student, Anna Hegarty, took place in the shallows of Cannonvale Beach on a day of low tide last Saturday, November 5.

The university invited the group of volunteers to help harvest seagrass flowers, which contain 30 seeds, for both research and for rehabilitation by helping grow new seagrass in damaged areas.

The project focuses on seagrass seed dispersal in dynamic environments - namely places which can experience severe tropical storms, such as the Whitsundays, which can damage the ecosystem.

The seeds, which are podded within seagrass flowers, or spathes, are collected for CMERC laboratories to be stored until a dispersal in the event of severe weather or in locations which could benefit from seagrass.

Ms Hegarty said seagrass is evident on every continent apart from Antarctica with the genera trend that it is decreasing worldwide.

“What we’re doing with my project is part of a bigger Whitsundays project alongside Reef Catchments and Coral Sea Marina Resort, as well as Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) who have received funding for from Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Island Initiative project,” she said

“When you head somewhere like Bunnings and buy a seed packet, you have instructions for growing conditions: light, water, time to grow. But we don’t know those things for seagrass. That’s why we need to harvest, study, and experiment with the seeds and flowers gathered through this project.”

The Seagrass harvesting event in the Whitsundays saw around 20 people – both adults and children – working in a seagrass meadow of Zostera muelleri seagrass and was as much about community education as actual seed gathering, according to Ms Hegarty.

“Coming from Ireland myself, no one in my university degree was taught what seagrass was. Ocean ecosystems focus on mangroves, coral, but people aren’t introduced to seagrass. Much of the time, people are just out there walking on it and think it’s algae or seaweed,” she said.

“That’s where the education aspect comes into it with these activities. Seagrass is extremely important as an ecosystem. It is 35 per cent more of a carbon sink than a pristine tropical rainforest.”

Limited research into seagrass has shown its importance as a water purifier for the Great Barrier Reef, a source of food for dugongs, turtles, waterfowls, and crabs, as well as a habitat.

“The seagrass meadow at Cannonvale Beach and the Pioneer Bay area is a great source for other meadows through dispersal in the currents so it’s quite important to keep it thriving,” Ms Hegarty said.

“Our goal is to get as many seeds as possible at The Whitsundays, but also to get the community involved too at the same time, which is invaluable. Understanding is how we come to appreciate.”

Over the week, CQU harvested roughly 38,000 seeds in the Whitsundays, with a total annual goal for both Gladstone and Cannonvale of one million.

Interested parties can email CMERC-Admin@cqu.edu.au to find out how you can volunteer with CMERC at their next seagrass event.

‍

CQUniversity’s Coastal Marine Ecostystem Research Centre (CMERC) PHD student Anna Hegarty at Cannonvale Beach harvesting seagrass flowers with locals for study and planting

Seagrass harvesting focuses on the flowers which contain 30 seeds

Students from Cannonvale State School, their parents, and locals helped harvest the seagrass in a meadow, which is the muddy sediment which seagrass grows within