Marine Produce Australia: Cone Bay Barramundi Aquaculture ...

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4. Marine Monitoring Program Fish-farming operations are presently restricted to the eastern end of the aquaculture lease. As operations at the western end of the lease are unlikely to recommence in the foreseeable future, the focus of the revised marine monitoring program is on the eastern part of the lease. MPA will inform the DoF and the OEPA immediately if sea-cages are re-deployed to the western end, or anywhere else within the lease. 4.1 Water quality monitoring 4.1.1 Objectives The objective of the water quality monitoring program is to assess whether the EQC have been met in the Moderate Ecological Protection Area (MEPA) and at the boundaries of the High (HEPA) and Maximum Ecological Protection Areas (MaxEPA). The water quality monitoring program includes the following analytes: total suspended solids (TSS) (organic and inorganic fraction), biologically available nutrients (dissolved inorganic nitrogen [DIN], comprising ammonia [NH3] and nitrite+nitrate [NO2 - + NO3 - ]), chlorophyll-a, light attenuation and dissolved oxygen. 4.1.2 Responsibility Water quality management shall be the responsibility of the Proponent (Marine Produce Australia). The work may be delegated to a nominated third party to undertake on behalf of the Proponent. 4.1.3 Timing The Cone Bay site experiences two major climatic cycles: the November-March wet season and the April-July dry season. The winter dry season is characterised by extended periods of dry sunny weather, while the summer wet season is characterised by frequent rain and periodic cyclone events. It is proposed that water quality sampling is conducted at monthly intervals (four times in total) between June and September to thus capture the winter-spring dry period, and then again at monthly intervals (four times in total) between December and March to thus capture the summer-autumn wet period. Sampling will be conducted on an incoming neap tide. The design, frequency and scope of the water quality monitoring program will be reviewed after the first two years of implementation in consultation with the OEPA (see Section 6). 4.1.4 Sampling regime Sampling sites On each sampling occasion, duplicate water samples will be collected at 13 compliance sites 2 (encompassing five sites within the MEPA and four sites within each of the High and Maximum Ecological Protection Areas) and eight reference sites (Figure 4.1) 3 . While each of the duplicate samples will be frozen, only one of the samples will be analysed immediately. The other sample will be analysed in the event that the EQG is exceeded. MEPA samples will be collected downstream of the sea-cages at fixed distance intervals (0 m, 10 m, 50 m, 100 m and 200 m). The distance intervals will be positioned along a vector orientated in the direction of the prevailing current (as indicated by a surface drogue 4 ). The approach has two purposes: (i) to measure the extent of the contamination gradient (if any) 2 While site Max4 has been included at the boundary of the HEPA/MAXEPA, this site may be characterised by different water quality given its proximity to a tidal (mangrove dominated) lagoon. Results obtained at this site may be eliminated from the data if it is found that the lagoon is artificially inflating the nutrient readings. 3 It is noted that a single sample is to be taken at each site. Replication (i.e. multiple samples per site) is not important in the context of the Cone Bay water quality monitoring program as the program aims to determine if the EQG have been met at the edge of the respective ecological protection zones. Replication would only be important where the program aimed to test hypotheses about the extent of differences between sites and/or proximity from the sea-cages, which is not the aim of this program. 4 Which on an incoming tide, is likely to be in an easterly direction. 14 Oceanica: Marine Produce Australia: Cone Bay Barramundi Aquaculture, Environmental Monitoring & Management Plan
downstream of the sea-cages and (ii) to provide relevant data for assessment of the EQG. While this approach is designed for application in the MEPA on an incoming tide (when water flows east), the sampling program also enables inferences about possible effects on an outgoing tide (when water flows west) 5 , even though these conditions are not directly sampled. Under an outgoing tide, some (or all) of the distance intervals may be inferred to be in the high ecological protection zone. EQG for high and moderate ecological protection (or both) will therefore be applied depending on the position of the sea-cages relative to the MEPA/HEPA boundary. This is a conservative approach that ensures protection of sensitive fauna located at/or near the edge of the western HEPA boundary. For further details, including a flow diagram of the process for calculating the EQG, refer to Section 5.1.1. HEPA and MaxEPA sites will be sampled at the eastern boundaries of high and maximum ecological protection areas, respectively. To account for dispersal of contaminants from the sea-cages, these sites have been positioned widely along a ~700 m section of the ecological protection area boundaries. Reference sites have been established so as to be representative of water quality in Cone Bay while being beyond the influence of the sea-cages 6 . Some caution should be applied in interpreting results obtained at reference sites given the possible existence of an acrossshore (south-north) water quality gradient. The suitability of the reference sites will be reviewed, in consultation with the OEPA, in two years time. GPS coordinates for water quality sites are provided in Appendix C. Water quality parameters to be measured The suite of parameters to be measured on each sampling occasion is detailed in Table 4.1. Table 4.1 Suite of water quality parameters to be measured on each sampling occasion Protection Zone TSS (LOI) Physical & chemical profiles Nutrients & chlorophyll-a LAC DO MEPA � N/A � � � N/A HEPA � � � � � � MaxEPA � � � � � � Reference � � � � � � Notes: * Monitored for contextual purposes only Physical chemical profile sampling methods DO measurements will be taken approximately 50 cm from the bottom using a calibrated water quality sensor. Light attenuation measurements will be conducted simultaneously at two depths with one sensor positioned 1 m below the surface and the second approximately 7 m below the surface (this may vary depending on the depth of the water at each site). The light attenuation coefficient (LAC) will be calculated as the difference between the logarithim10 of irradiance values at each depth according to the equation: Light Attenuation Coefficient (LAC) = (log10I1 – log10I7 ) ÷ 6 Nutrients, TSS and primary productivity sampling methods Measurements of TSS (LOI), DIN (total ammonia, nitrite+nitrate) and primary productivity (chlorophyll-a) will be undertaken using depth-integrated sampling. Additional measurements of TSS and total ammonia will also be undertaken approximately 50 cm from 5 Inferences are possible as currents are strongly shore-parallel under both incoming and outgoing tides (APASA 2006). 6 3 Based on predicted dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations (g/m ) for neap tide in December 2005 (after a 25 days continuous release of nutrients) and in June 2006 (after 20 days continuous release of nutrients) (APASA 2006). Oceanica: Marine Produce Australia: Cone Bay Barramundi Aquaculture, Environmental Monitoring & Management Plan 15 Ammonia DIN* Chlorophyll-a
Page 1: Marine Produce Australia: Cone Bay
Page 5 and 6: Client: Marine Produce Australia Re
Page 7 and 8: Contents 1.� Purpose of this docu
Page 9: List of Figures Figure 1.1� Locat
Page 12 and 13: Table 1.1 Environmental Values and
Page 14 and 15: In addition to the Conditions and C
Page 17: Note: The habitats shown above are
Page 20 and 21: 2.3.1 Site selection Aquaculture ca
Page 22 and 23: 3. Environmental Objectives 3.1 Bes
Page 26 and 27: the bottom of the water column. Sta
Page 28 and 29: Table 4.2 EQG for water quality EQG
Page 30 and 31: Table 4.3 EQS for water quality EQS
Page 32 and 33: 4.2 Sediment quality monitoring 4.2
Page 34 and 35: Table 4.5 EQG for sediments EQG Ind
Page 36 and 37: 4.3 Coral reef monitoring 4.3.1 Obj
Page 38 and 39: Indicator Light attenuation Chlorop
Page 40 and 41: 4.4 Sediment infauna monitoring 4.4
Page 42 and 43: Indicator Zone of Ecological Protec
Page 44 and 45: 4.5 Biota monitoring and management
Page 46 and 47: 5. Marine Environmental Management
Page 48 and 49: Monitor Are�any�sea-cages�wit
Page 50 and 51: sample median calculated. However,
Page 52 and 53: EQG�(i)�or�(ii)� exceeded T
Page 54 and 55: 5.4.2 Movement of stock Movement or
Page 56 and 57: 7. Stakeholder Consultation 7.1 Det
Page 58 and 59: 8. Additional information Additiona
Page 60 and 61: � Administer all prescribed medic
Page 62 and 63: Category Issue Consequence Likeliho
Page 65 and 66: 9. Acknowledgements This EMMP was p
Page 67 and 68: EPA (2008) Report and recommendatio
Page 69: Appendix A Ministerial Statement 79
Page 72 and 73: 2 Proponent Nomination and Contact
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2. Within the zone of High Ecologic
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The Proposal (Assessment No. 1642)
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Figure 1: Zones of ecological prote
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Appendix B Method Statement: Geo-re
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Report No. OCEMPA001 Rev A Revision
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1. Introduction Geo Oceans was comm
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efore smoothly decreasing to zero a
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Table 3 Data fields captured in the
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3. Results A total of 27332 rows of
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Figure 3 Hard coral percent cover d
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Appendix 2: Video analysis substrat
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Proposed Seagrass, water quality an
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Appendix E Responses to comments re
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Version Author Authority Comment MP
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