Page 37 - Tropic Magazine Issue 35

TROPIC • COVER STORY

Spanning 2,300km in length and comprising over
3,000 individual reefs, the Great Barrier Reef is one
of the world’s most incredible natural icons,
but only 5 to 10 per cent is regularly surveyed.
Source: Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef

The power of sea
cucumber poop
• Sea cucumbers eat sediment on the
ocean’s floor. When it’s discharged,
the sediment is much the same other
than being aerated, making it a more
comfortable place for animals like
small crabs, worms and mollusks
to live

• Excreted sediments release trapped
nitrogren, which is vital to the health
of corals and algae
Seagrass restoration • Sea cucumbers are thought to help
prevent ocean acidification, as their
Closer to the shore, JCU ecologists are braving crocodiles, jellyfish, poop increases the availability of
and deep mud in a mission to re-establish seagrass meadows at calcium carbonate
Mourilyan Harbour. The area was once a thriving habitat for juvenile
prawns and fish, but several years of heavy rainfall and cyclones leading • On Heron Island Reef alone, sea
up to 2010 resulted in the meadows being all but lost. The project, cucumbers produce more than 64,000
carrying out in partnership with Mandubarra Traditional Rangers and metric tons of poop each year – more
volunteer group OzFish, involves deploying seagrass shoots attached to than the weight of five Eiffel Towers
biodegradable mesh made from potato starch.
It’s hoped the reintroduction of seagrasses will provide a food source Who knew these floppy, faceless
for turtles and dugong, help mitigate climate change through carbon creatures could be so powerful?
sequestration and filter sediment from coastal waters, as well as
provide a nursery ground for local fish species. Source: Coral Reefs 2021 study, involving JCU’s
Dr Karen Joyce

Did you know an
adult dugong can
eat up to 40kg of
seagrass each day?
That can be about 10%
of its body weight!

Image credits: Grumpy Turtle Creative
A young adult dugong recently
spotted near Green Island.
Credit: Dan Liu, Island Photography, MORE: jcu.edu.au
Quicksilver Group.

37 • tropicnow.com.au