Seagrass in the palm of your hand

It’s now easier for boaters and fishers to help protect NSW’s seagrass meadows using the newly updated Deckee Boating app.

The Deckee app now shows recreational fishers and boaters where seagrass meadows occur in NSW estuaries so they can avoid damaging seagrass accidently when anchoring or when travelling through a seagrass area.

Deckee is the free boating app for local knowledge, activity logging, location sharing, marine weather, safety alerts and official regulations in NSW.

All seagrasses are protected in NSW, and some populations are listed as endangered.

Seagrasses meadows provide a valuable habitat and food source for fish. As well as keeping estuaries clean by trapping sediments and preventing erosion, seagrass meadows are efficient at capturing and storing carbon.

The Deckee Boating app incorporates DPI Fisheries’ latest seagrass mapping conducted as part of the MEMS Mapping seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh project.

The app shows recreational fishers and boaters where seagrass meadows occur with the aim of helping avoid damage to seagrass from anchoring and educating the public about the importance of seagrass meadows (via a link to the DPI website).

Download the Deckee Boating app from your app store so you can take steps to help conserve our precious seagrass meadows when boating in NSW’s estuaries.