Citizen Science Seagrass Monitoring
Every year, volunteers came together to collect citizen science data about five seagrass sites across our region. Reef Catchments completed seagrass monitoring as part of the World Heritage Area Islands protection project.
The three sites in the Whitsundays are surveyed by Whitsunday Seagrass Volunteers. The two sites in the Mackay region were monitored by Reef Catchments . Each site is monitored twice a year for species diversity, biomass, and seagrass health indicators.
The sites we currently monitor include:
- St Helens
- Clairview
Data Collected
The data collected during seagrass monitoring is provided to Seagrass Watch HQ which appraises the information. Once data quality is assured, Seagrass Watch HQ analyses the data to make conclusions about the health of the seagrass.
Health indication scores for each seagrass sites is available here: https://www.seagrasswatch.org/mackaywhitsunday/#SI
Volunteering to continue protecting our seagrass
If you would like to help collect this data, please join one of the Facebook groups for future seagrass monitoring information and activities, or contact Rachel Taylor.
Project contacts