Transplanting mangrove seedlings – stage 4 of shoreline protection trial

ECF’s nature-based shoreline protection trial in the inner harbour, Port Adelaide has achieve another milestone with the transplanting of 153 mangrove seedlings on October 30th.

Earlier stages include

• clearing tyres and other rubbish from the shoreline
• securing necessary approvals from Council, PIRSA and DEW
• the deployment of 110 coir bags of clean recycled Pacific oyster shell, to form an intertidal reef

Guided by ecologist Peri Coleman, 3 ECF volunteers went to Mutton Cove where Peri demonstrated the size of the seedlings (ideally 6 leaf stage) to be collected. Many of this year’s seedlings are “excess” in that they will rapidly be shaded out by the older juveniles as canopy cover increases. This makes them ideal candidates for translocation.

Volunteer Chris collecting 6 leaf seedling in Mutton Cove

153 seedlings were gathered using small hand trowels, from three locations at Mutton Cove. This represents a tiny proportion of all juveniles from the last several years (since Mutton Cove seawall was breached in May 2016).

The recovered seedlings were placed in a bin with some water and transported directly to the NewPort Quays Living Shoreline trial site. There they were planted out in grid patterns (to allow easier monitoring) around a series of nine property pegs. The pegs were placed in a rough single line in the intertidal zone and a handheld GPS recorded the locations.

Transplanted mangrove seedlings along NewPort Quays shoreline

Location of mangrove seedlings