Griend Island, Wadden Sea, The Netherlands

Credit: Richard Lilley

Ecological monitoring is the repeated observation of an ecoystem, usually undertaken to detect any changes. Seagrass monitoring programs provide managers with the necessary data to make evidenced-based decisions and to inform policy.

There are a number of excellent monitoring protocols, such as Seagrass-Watch, for longterm ecological monitoring which can also be used readily for site characterisation and detailed ground-truth. Seagrass-Watch has several seagrass monitoring strategies depending on the type and location of seagrass meadows.