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COMMUNITY MONITORING

Monitoring is the observation of a situation to detect changes over time.  The Inshore Fish Group encourages the community monitoring of a number of locations across southern Australia.  Long- term monitoring of a number of locations will show the fluctuations in the diversity and abundance of fish over southern Australia.  This information combined with records of environmental variations as  stressors such as siltation, pollution, disease, climate variation, or the invasion of exotic species, would show the effect of these changes on fish. 

'Community events such as the unveiling of the eagle at Grange raise awareness of many conservation issues along the gulf.  August 2006. Held by the Friends of the St. Vincent Gulf.Dr Scorseby (and Anna) Shepherd, initiated the first community monitoring of marine habitats in South Australia, the Reef Watch programme.

The crowd at the unveiling included Dr. Scorseby Shepherd, a pioneer in the conservation of the marine environment of Southern Australasia.  Dr Shepherd won the Order of Australia in 2006, for his work towards the understanding and conservation of marine environment. 

Community Events with the Friends of St Vincents Gulf at Grange Beach

The renewed optimism for the rehabilitation of our precious marine environments was recently shown by the unveiling of a sculpture at Grange, Holdfast Bay, South Australia.  The sculpture was a sea eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster).  Sea eagles were once found around the entire coastline of Australia and were very common in bays, gulfs and inlets across Southern Australasia.  They were often seen flying along the metropolitan beaches of Holdfast Bay in front of Adelaide.  Unfortunately, the sea eagles have now been eradicated from the region.  Problems with the deliberate destruction of sea eagles persisted until the mid nineteen nineties in the Derwent Estuary, Tasmania, Australia, when many were deliberately shot.

The marine environment behind the eagle has been highly degraded by effluent and by run off from the city and suburbs of Adelaide.  Perhaps if this habitat is restored the sea eagle will once again soar proudly over Holdfast Bay.