Seagrasses are important fisheries habitats in NSW estuaries, supporting the juvenile stages of a range of economically important species. Extensive losses have occurred, and are continuing to occur, to seagrass beds throughout NSW, Australia and worldwide. Poor water quality, in terms of increased turbidity and nutrients, has been one cause for these losses, but there have also been large areas reclaimed, dredged and impacted by various coastal engineering works.

It is generally accepted that improved management of these seagrass areas is required, including restoration of damaged sites. In NSW this is hampered by a lack of relevant applied research. For example, if areas of seagrass are to be lost through a new development proposal, opportunities for compensation arise. Yet the success of transplanting seagrasses in these situations is not high and there are no guidelines for rehabilitating such sites, either in terms of site preparation or species selection.

The piecemeal approach to seagrass management issues, particularly the restoration problem, has involved taking advantage of short term projects arising from development proposals. However in the last decade, almost nothing new has been learnt about rehabilitation of seagrass beds. There is an urgent need to undertake a significant research project with the aim of investigating:

* present and past distributions of seagrasses in
selected NSW estuaries,
* growth requirements and ecology of NSW species,
* conservation priorities,
* site evaluation methods,
* impacts of management decisions on seagrasses, and,
* methods for rehabilitating sites.