As always, the mandatory (made so by Ria) "We are Happy Seagrassers" pose was needed -or demanded- before we start the session, but the girls cheerfully obliged and spurred by their cheer, the rest of us managed something more than our usual grimace...
Then we got right to work, estimating the dimensions of the seagrass bed at Labrador. The Thalassia hemprichii or sickle seagrass, in particular seems to be doing very well and has spread to the other side of the jetty. There were several more clumps of Enhalus acoroides (Tape seagrass) than I remembered as well. The girls did their homework and were pretty spot on with their seagrass ID as well, which was impressive.We laid out a 100m line and did five 25m transects running perpendicular to the shore at 25m intervals. This is a method modified from the original 50m x 50m that is used on Chek Jawa and Semakau because the seagrass area at Labrador is much narrower.
Before we knew it, we were done and the girls had a bit of time to explore the shore. Wai (of WildFilms) found a nudibranch and we soon gathered around to have a closer look.
Here it is up close:
All too soon, the tide was coming in and it was time to pack up and leave. Keep watching this space for updates on the girls' first monitoring session at Labrador Beach coming up in April.[Ria: The RGS team now have their own blog! Drop by for a look at their latest seagrass adventures.]
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