Western Port Seagrass Partnership | Non-profit organisation

Western Port Seagrass Partnership

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25.01.2022 Mangroves, and the important role they play in coastal protection.

24.01.2022 Volunteers, we need your help again, please! This time we will be carrying out maintenance activities at our previous planting sites. You’ll have the opportunity to see how our little mangroves are growing. Sunday 22nd April 2018 Grantville Monday 23rd April 2018 Lang Lang South... If you are available, please contact Doug Newton - [email protected] for further information.

24.01.2022 Great research on the value of coastal ecosystems from Deakin University and the Blue Carbon Lab. Congratulations!

20.01.2022 Great article from ABC Science about the role of mangroves and seagrass in carbon sequestration, featuring the work of the Deakin Uni Blue Carbon Lab.

19.01.2022 Mangrove forests that died along a 1,000km stretch of coastline in northern Australia have been emitting methane at rates eight times higher than live trees, according to new research.

17.01.2022 New paper by Jänes et al. quantifies #fisheries enhancement from Australian #coastalwetlands. Results show #seagrass supports more fish production than mangrove...s and tidal marshes. On average seagrass were valued at AUD $21,200 ha/yr ! https://www.sciencedirect.com//a/abs/pii/S2212041620300474 Jänes, H., Macreadie, P.I., Zu Ermgassen, P.S., Gair, J.R., Treby, S., Reeves, S., Nicholson, E., Ierodiaconou, D. and Carnell, P., 2020. Quantifying fisheries enhancement from coastal vegetated ecosystems. Ecosystem Services, 43, p.101105. ABSTRACT Coastal ecosystems are estimated to support 95% of the world’s commercially-important fish, owing largely to their provision of nursery habitat for juveniles; however, systematic databases with such data are scarce. By systematically reviewing the literature across Australia, we quantified fisheries enhancement from three key coastal vegetated habitats: seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and tidal marshes. From juvenile densities, we modelled adult fish biomass enhancement resulting from these structured habitats and linked fish of economic importance with market values. We found that seagrass displayed higher per hectare abundance, biomass and economic enhancement compared to mangroves and tidal marshes. On average, one hectare of seagrass supported 55,000 more fish annually compared to unvegetated seabed, resulting in an additional biomass of 4000 kg and a value increase of AUD 21,200 annually. Mangroves supported 19,000 more fish, equivalent to 265 kg1 ha1 y1, and tidal marshes provided a modest 1700 more fish, equivalent to 64 kg1 ha1 y1. The most abundant fish across all ecosystems were small, non-commercial species (e.g. gobies and glassfish), but the highest biomass and economic value originated from larger, longer-lived fish that are regularly targeted by fisheries (e.g. breams and mullets). By quantifying enhancement value across Australia, our findings provide further evidence for, the benefit these critical habitats provide in supporting coastal fisheries and human well-being.

16.01.2022 Call out for volunteers! The Western Port Seagrass Partnership, in conjunction with Melbourne University, has a number of mangrove planting activities planned for this summer. If you’d like to be involved with on the ground mangrove planting, please register your interest at [email protected] The planned dates are:... 1. Tuesday 21st January at noon at Grantville (meeting at bakery then driving to the end of Malcolm Drive) - planting seeds into special concrete pod arrays. 2. Monday 3rd February at 10:00 AM at Lang Lang (meeting at car park at the end of Jetty Rd) 3. April planting of seedlings - details to come. We are aware that a number of our volunteers will be contributing to bush fire prevention, fighting and recovery activities. Please keep safe and retain your focus on these activities.

16.01.2022 Over the last year The University of Melbourne and a number of other organisations, including the Western Port Seagrass Partnership, have embarked on a Nature Based Coastal Defence Project to trial the use of planter pods to encourage the growth of mangroves along our coast. Pods are in place in Western Port, at Lang Lang and Grantville, waiting for planting in early 2020. For further information, please have a look at the Community Bulletin on the University of Melbourne web site https://nccc.edu.au/community-bulletins/

15.01.2022 A wonderful gift to the people, and to the environment, from the family of John Clarke.

10.01.2022 From our 2018 planting season a mangrove seed attached to the stake using a rubber band.

09.01.2022 Great work from Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab and the Nature Conservancy, focussing on our vital wetlands.

08.01.2022 ‘Western Port - Cherished and Challenged’ is a documentary hosted, directed, and produced by the late John Clarke for the Western Port Seagrass Partnership. It’s now available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0CCxgblT1o) check it out. You can help protect Western Port by getting involved in our planting efforts. For details of upcoming field work, please see our previous Facebook post.

07.01.2022 WPSP Directors, community members and volunteers have been busy! Many of you have kindly spend time in the challenging muddy north-eastern coastline of Western Port, helping us to re-establish a protective ring of mangrove forests. We thought you might be interested in a recently completed review of our planting efforts undertaken by WPSP Director and Scientist Greg Parry. This review will help us shape our future programs. ... We’d like to once again thank everyone for their terrific support for these endeavours to protect Western Port. https://seagrass.com.au/projects/reports/

04.01.2022 Our new cages, designed to reduce the effect of wave energy on newly planted seeds.