Manual for the assessment of the health of Georges Bay: community monitoring

This manual describes a monitoring program for assessment of the health of Georges Bay. It includes indicators of estuarine health that are recommended for monitoring the bay and details of the methods and equipment used to measure these indicators. The manual follows on from a report on the ’Establishment of an integrated water quality monitoring framework for Georges Bay’ by Crawford and White (2005). In this report the water quality information available for Georges Bay was summarised and a preliminary monitoring program was recommended. A report card for the health of Georges Bay for the twelve months July 2004 to June 2005 was also provided. More general information on the ecology of Georges Bay is available in another report ‘Bringing Back the Bay: Marine Habitats and Water Quality in Georges Bay’ by Mount et al (2005). The indicators that are recommended for monitoring in Georges Bay are based on those recommended for monitoring estuaries and coastal waters in Tasmania by the Tasmanian Coastal, Estuarine and Marine (CEM) Indicators Working Group. This recommended set of indicators is detailed in The Tasmanian Indicator Compendium, draft form available at: http://www.environment.tas.gov.au/cm_draft_tasmanian_estuarine_coastal_marine_indicators.html. A summarised version of the Tasmanian Indicator Compendium entitled ‘Indicators for the condition of estuaries and coastal waters in Tasmania’ was written by Crawford (2006). These Tasmanian indicators are a subset of the national indicator set and are those that are considered to be a high priority for monitoring in Tasmania. Information on the national indicator set is available in the Coastal CRC Users Guide: Scheltinga et al (2004). Users’ guide to estuarine, coastal and marine indicators for regional NRM monitoring; available at http://www.coastal.crc.org.au/Publications/Indicators.html . They are also listed on the Australian Government NRM website, available at http://www.nrm.gov.au/publications/factsheets/me-indicators/index.html#ecmhi