Gladstone Permanent Transect Seagrass Monitoring: January 2012 interim update report

Seagrass has been monitored quarterly at permanent transects at seven locations in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay since November 2009 (excluding Redcliffe which has been monitored since August 2010) (see maps on pages 2 to 4). The program was established to determine within and among year variation in seagrass condition and form the key sensitive receptor sites for assessing seagrass condition during the Western Basin dredging operation.\ud \ud In September 2011, Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited commissioned additional monthly surveys outside of the regular quarterly monitoring to provide more frequent assessments of seagrass condition during dredging operations.\ud \ud In December 2011 it became apparent that the Wiggins Island permanent transect is located within the construction footprint for the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal project expected to commence in early 2012. Consequently, an additional permanent transect site was established at Wiggins Island in December 2012 (Map 5) to eventually replace the original site. Both sites will continue to be monitored until construction commences to determine if there are significant differences in seagrass communities between sites.\ud \ud This interim update report provides results of the most recent monthly survey of seagrass percent cover at permanent transects undertaken on the 23rd and 24th of January 2012 and provides a comparison between the original and new permanent transect sites at Wiggins Island