Watching Seagrass Grow: Reflections of a Volunteer

Nor Aishah shares her journey with TeamSeagrass and why seagrasses are important.

Nor Aishah in striped shirt briefing the team at Chek Jawa.

Nor Aishah will be a familiar and reassuring figure to many regulars as she is now the main Seagrass Explainer, giving the pre-monitoring briefings for our trips. Here's Nor Aishah's story, and some parts she didn't quite highlight.

Cyrene Reef with Seagrass-Watch (14 Apr 2013)

A wet and windy start to our first Cyrene Reef trip for 2013!

But this didn't deter the rather large team that headed out early in the morning.

Latest Seagrass-Watch magazine highlights threats to seagrasses

Seagrasses all around the world face many threats. These are highlighted in the latest magazine of Seagrass-Watch with beautiful photos and great information.

Dredging, agricultural runoff, trawling, ports and shipping, boating, coastal development, invasive species, urban and industrial runoff. On the less gloomy side, there is also lots of information on mitigating the impacts of these threats as well as efforts in seagrass restoration.

New website on Blue Carbon science and policy

Coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses are some of the most productive on Earth. By storing ‘blue’ carbon from the atmosphere and oceans, they are an essential part of climate change mitigation.

TeamSeagrass monitoring the seagrasses at Chek Jawa
just in front of the mangroves there.

The knowledge and action to maintain and restore coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses have increased significantly in the last two years said the International Blue Carbon Initiative during the launch of a new website that provides the latest blue carbon science and policy.

Pulau Semakau (31 Mar 2013)

Well before sunrise, a team of dedicated volunteers gather for the first morning monitoring at Pulau Semakau!

Photo by Sean Yap.

Here's Siti giving the safety briefing to everyone.

Berlayar Creek (9 Feb 2013)

The narrow stretch of seagrasses along the eastern edge of the Berlayar Creek boardwalk is still there!

On a wet Lunar New Year Eve, Andy and I monitored this shore. Besides Spoon seagrasses, there were also two small patches of Tape seagrass in deeper water.