Our research

Our research journey began as a trip to the foreshore of the Redcliffe Peninsula.  There we found, immortalised on the Woody Point Jetty, a plaque stating that thousands of dugongs were sighted off Woody Point in the late 19th century.    So we set out to investigate the reasons why the dugongs were no longer there.


Our investigations led us to Osprey House environmental centre where we learnt that the catchment area of the Pine River and Hays Inlet was heavily polluted due to sewerage, urban development, dumping and storm water run off.  These pollutants have led to poor water quality and the subsequent depletion of the seagrass beds, vital for the survival of dugong.



We then conducted some comprehensive Internet research ranging from academic journals to newspaper articles and found that the consequences of the human impact on dugongs was even more far-reaching than we initially thought. 


In addition to our field trip, we also undertook a fair test comparing the survival rates of seagrass in pure Baywater with seagrass in a mixture of Baywater and stormwater. This experiment was inspired by our newfound understanding of the effects of stormwater on sea-grass. 
Unfortunately our test results showed little conclusive evidence as both samples died within two days (see images below). 


Day 1: Bay/stormwater vs. Baywater 

Day 3: Bay/stormwater vs. Baywater  

We may need to do a bit more research to see what type of environments are best to grow sea-grass in and to control for other variables such as sunlight, water depth, soil depth and type, etc.