One of the AQWA Foundation's core Initiatives focuses on seagrass - the ocean's answer to grasslands and meadows, and its only flowing plant!

Seagrass is an essential ecosystem the acts as a nursery for fry and other young marine life. The existence of seagrass meadows is a prerequisite for other key ecosystem to thrive; such as the often neighbouring coral reefs.

Unfortunately, seagrass meadows are under great threat from human activities and a changing ocean; including commercial fishing, recreational boating, changing currents and rising ocean temperatures.

The Foundation's initiative is multi-pronged, focusing on; community education of WA's incredible seagrass and why it must be preserved; restoring seagrass (particularly in Cockburn Sound) with our expert partners; species recovery and conservation through our Western Australian Seahorse breed and release program; and seagrass cultivation development - a challenging task.

Learn more about the Initiative in action below.

The Meadow is our on-site community education tool for informing the public about the vital importance of seagrass meadows. Featuring a living seagrass aquarium, interactive displays and engaging Guided talks and activities, this new exhibit space tells the important story of Western Australia’s impressive seagrass meadows and the transformative effect one plant can have on an entire ecosystem. One of our key student Excursion Programs, Ecosystem Engineers, also incorporates The Meadow exhibit and allows students to discover this often overlooked, but vitally important, marine ecosystem.

The Western Australian Seahorse is an endemic species naturally found in the once-vibrant Cockburn Sound. In consultation with DBCA, our team releases successfully bred seahorse fry back to Cockburn Sound to assist the natural population recovery as part of our Seagrass Sanctuaries Initiative. Watch the video of a recent release above.

What Is Seeds For Snapper?

AQWA Foundation proudly supports Seeds For Snapper; a dedicated initiative by OzFish devised to help restore the once thriving seagrass of Cockburn Sound, which has been emaciated by human threats. Volunteers are invited to help collect, sort disperse and monitor seagrass seeds at the optimum time.

Each year, we host a Community Day and encourage our AQWA community to get involved! Join the team of boaters, divers and shore-based seagrass squad to scoop, sort and transport the seagrass fruit on Saturday November 16 2024, meeting at Woodman Point, Coogee (6166) from 8:00 am – 3:00 pm AWST. You can find all the essential information here.

AQWA’s dedicated aquarist team will join you there; we’ll be lending our expertise and boat to the cause!

How To Join In

This Community Day will be a fantastic event for SCUBA divers AND land-dwelling ocean lovers to get involved – the first step is to become a Seeds For Snapper WA Volunteer.

Once you’ve become a Volunteer, be sure to Register for the event to help the team plan the AQWA Foundation Community Day – we’ll need to know how many SCUBA divers, boaters and land-crew we have ready to lend a fin!

Schedule:

• Morning seagrass dive 1  |  8am – 10am
• Morning seagrass dive 2  |  10am – 12pm
• Seagrass squad (shore-based volunteers)  |  1pm – 3pm