The seagrass ecosystems of Shark Bay have faced considerable stress in recent decades, with 36% of the meadows being damaged in the marine heatwave of 2010/11. In a collaboration between OzFish Unlimited volunteers and the local Shark Bay community, we have developed a restoration program to re-establish Amphibolis antartica (wire weed) on Which Bank off the coast of Monkey Mia. We have used biodegradable sandbags to provide a stable sediment for the A. antartica seedlings to establish themselves, as has been used in South Australia (Tanner et al., 2014). The sandbag technique exploits the viviparous seedlings which drift across the seafloor over winter and hook onto the hessian of the sandbags where they can begin to grow. Disparate environmental conditions (water temperature, turbidity, susceptibility to high-energy weather events) to those in South Australia have necessitated significant changes to the methodology originally used. Namely changes to the sandbag hessian density and pre-implantation of the sandbags with seedlings have been trialled.
Preliminary monitoring to date has shown promising results in the pre-implanted sandbags. Additionally, colonising species such as Halodule uninervis and Halophila ovalis have established themselves between the sandbags on the site. This work highlights the importance of adapting existing restoration to local conditions.