PNNL

Abstract

Seagrass conservation benefits from a wide recognition of the importance of seagrasses to commercial and recreational fisheries production and to populations of ?charismatic mega-fauna?. Seagrass management initiatives such as special protection areas are usually only implemented when the importance of habitats to commercial fisheries production or to threatened species is clearly identified. Impacts on seagrasses from fishing, agricultural, and urban activities are poorly understood and formal zoning to protect seagrasses is limited. Legislation and planning programs need the support of imaginative education campaigns, which also provide the community with solutions for protecting seagrasses. Basic seagrass resource inventories are always a pre-requisite to establishing seagrass protected areas and for targeting locations requiring management of impacting agents upstream. Difficulties for management of seagrasses often stem from the expanse and remoteness of some coastlines, and the costs in policing management areas. In many regions of the world, maintenance of seagrass systems is not even implemented because there is still so little basic understanding of the status of seagrass resources, the natural ranges of variability or the possibility of adverse human impacts. Priorities for study still include establishment of detailed inventories and long-term seagrass monitoring programs at sites over a range of latitudes, locations and habitat types, and areas of conservation priority. Studies which identify the causes of change in seagrasses and seagrass responses to anthropogenic impacts are vital for developing and further refining our tools for habitat improvement. They are best understood when used within conceptual models, and they also help in identifying parameters for monitoring the health of seagrass systems and success of habitat improvement programs.