Seagrasses in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay 2021 Annual long‐term monitoring. A Report for Gladstone Ports Corporation

1. Seagrasses in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay were surveyed from the 3rd – 15thNovember 2021 as part of a long‐term annual monitoring program. 2. Overall, seagrass condition was good for the third consecutive year after an extended period of poor or satisfactory seagrass condition prior to 2019. 3. Nine of the fourteen annual monitoring meadows were in a good to very good condition and a further four in satisfactory condition. 4. All meadows in the Western Basin were in good or very good condition except for one ephemeral deep‐water meadow that was in satisfactory condition. 5. The large Pelican Banks meadow adjacent to Curtis Island increased in biomass and the proportion of Zostera muelleri to be in satisfactory condition after six years of being in poor condition. 6. Favourable seagrass growing conditions due to a lack of major rainfall events and low river flows over the last three years has led to successive years of good seagrass condition in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay. 7. A small monitoring meadow in Rodds Bay underwent declines in meadow area, biomass and species composition to be in very poor condition but the two larger Rodds Bay meadows were in good and satisfactory condition. 8. Seagrass remained in good condition in 2021 and meadows in the Western Basin had some of the highest biomass recorded with meadows likely to have high levels of resilience against major weather events and anthropogenic factors