Bags away! 2025 Seeds for Snapper season in Shark Bay complete

Fremantle, Perth, Projects
Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025. Seagrass growing from deployed sandbags underwater.

OzFish has wrapped up another season of Seeds for Snapper in Shark Bay, with more than a dozen volunteers from the Perth and Fremantle Chapters making the journey north to join locals and visiting tourists in restoring seagrass meadows in Monkey Mia, WA.

Over the course of just three weeks, 2,000 biodegradable sandbags were filled, sewn, and loaded aboard the Norwest Lady. The team then attached Amphibolis antarctica seedlings to each sandbag, making use of the natural hooks on their roots to secure them in place, before deployment across key sites. Underwater crews then carefully positioned the bags into rows on the seafloor to maximise their impact.

  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025
  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025
  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025
  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025
  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025. Diver installing seagrass sand bags underwater.

More than 15,000 seedlings were collected by hand from local beaches, then attached to the sandbags as part of the efforts to support natural settlement and growth.

This has been one of our most efficient years yet. With the help of returning volunteers and some new tools like our sandbagging machine — The Baginator — we were able to get a huge amount done in a short window.

Steve Pursell, OzFish WA Program Manager

The project is designed to restore Amphibolis seagrass, a species critical to the health of Shark Bay’s marine ecosystem. Severe marine heatwaves, sediment disturbance and long-term degradation have significantly reduced the extent of healthy seagrass in the region.

  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025. Boat crew deploying seagrass sandbags.
  • Dolphin swimming along boat in Mokney Mia WA
  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025. Diver installing seagrass sand bags underwater.

It’s good to see locals and visitors alike, getting stuck in and helping restore our patch of Shark Bay. This place means a lot to people, and this work is helping bring it back.

Liam Ridgley from Perfect Nature Cruises, OzFish’s local project partner

This season saw improvements to gear and timing, with thicker hessian bags and an earlier deployment date helping to increase success. Early signs from last year’s trial sites suggest strong potential, with other colonising seagrass species also observed growing around the bags.

Volunteers enjoyed a week of warm weather and incredible wildlife sightings — including turtles, sharks and even a visiting whale. The deployment crew were also treated to a unique sighting of the local ‘sponging’ dolphins — where dolphins collect and carry sponges on their noses to aid in foraging.

  • Monkey Mia WA seagrass for snapper project 2025 volunteers

OzFish and its partners are now looking ahead to the next phase of the project, with more bags to be deployed in coming seasons.

To get involved or support the work, head to the Monkey Mia project page.

Monkey Mia Seagrass Project

The project has been funded by the Commonwealth Government’s Australian Heritage Grants, with additional support from Monkey Mia Yacht Charters, Brooks Hire, Komatsu, Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, Jock Clough Marine Foundation, the Morgon family, Dongara Marine, Operational Geotechs, Shark Bay Caravan Park, RDH, Geared Construction, Refuel Australia, Blackwoods and Sun City Signs, and BCF – Boating, Camping, Fishing.