Underwater seed harvesters are being developed to help restore Cockburn Sound's seagrass meadows.
A remote-controlled machine with specially designed combs to gather seagrass fruit was recently trialled in a bid to accelerate recovery.
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation staff Vanessa Forbes, Fiona Webster and Kane Jackson, along with Dr Simone Strydom from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, joined a research team led by University of WA Professor Gary Kendrick to test the innovation.
Cockburn Sound has lost nearly 80 per cent of its seagrass meadows due to low water quality from industrial discharges which occurred last century. These no longer happen and, while water quality has significantly improved, seagrass has been slow to recover.
Seagrass meadows provide critical habitats for marine life and are important to the area's ecological health
Programs like Seeds for Snapper by fishing conservation charity OzFish have helped recovery, with volunteers collecting Posidonia australis seagrass fruit for seed dispersal. The results demonstrate the approach is successful but achieving restoration at a measurable and meaningful scale remains a challenge.
To address this, Prof Kendrick's team is collaborating with international company Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering to develop an underwater robot fitted with special combs to collect seagrass fruit automatically and efficiently, reducing reliance on manual collection.
This builds on work done by the same team under the WAMSI Westport Marine Science Program to develop an autonomous robotic planting system to embed seeds into the sea floor.
Over two successful seasons, Ulysses showcased its first-of-a-kind seagrass fruit and seed collection, planting, processing and monitoring technology in Cockburn Sound. It offers a potential solution to scale up community-driven restoration efforts and accelerate the recovery of Cockburn Sound's important habitats.
Robotic technologies that automate ocean habitat restoration, especially seagrass meadows, could revolutionise marine conservation by enabling faster, bigger-scale restoration projects.
This work ties in closely with the current review of the State Environmental (Cockburn Sound) Policy 2015, by the Department's marine ecosystems team. The updated policy aims to incorporate contemporary approaches, including strategies to enhance seagrass resilience and restoration in Cockburn Sound.
