© The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit Citation: Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (2017). Western Port Ramsar Site Management Plan Summary. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, East Melbourne. ISBN 978-1-76047-519-2 Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence, which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Cover Image: Seagrass beds and Black Swans in Yaringa Marine National Park - M. Rodrigue, Parks Victoria. Accessibility If you would like to receive this publication in an alternative format, please telephone DELWP Customer Service Centre 136 186, email , via the National Relay Service on 133 677 . This document is also available on the internet at
regional waterway management planning (Figure 5). The Western Port Ramsar Site Management Plan will be renewed every seven years and is underpinned by a monitoring program that reports on the condition of the system with respect to change in ecological character and progress towards meeting RCTs. Figure : The adaptive management cycle of the Victorian Waterway Management Program, noting that this Ramsar management plan is a part of the regional waterway management planning process (adapted from Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2013). Condition monitoring Monitoring recommendations to assess progress towards RCTs and change in ecological character (i.e. evaluate critical components, processes and services against LAC) are provided in Table 9. Consistent with the principles of the Western Port Ramsar Site Management Plan, responsible agencies have been identified, as have links to existing, relevant programs. It should be noted that many of the existing programs have limited funding and timelines and a full assessment of ongoing monitoring against monitoring needs will be required as part of implementation planning. To this end DELWP has a current project assessing the monitoring needs across Victoria’s 11 Ramsar sites, which may provide additional information for implementation planning in Western Port. Table : Monitoring requirements for the Western Port Ramsar Site. Program Frequency Responsibility Linkages to existing programs / activities Water quality Monthly and event based EPA Victoria Parks Victoria Melbourne Water Current water quality monitoring by EPA Melbourne Water funded sediments in estuary mouths study Intertidal mud and sand flat extent Every five years DELWP None found Seagrass Mapping every five years. Condition every two years DELWP Parks Victoria benthic habitat mapping at French Island and Yaringa Marine Parks Melbourne Water Saltmarsh and mangrove extent Every ten years DELWP CMA Boon et al (2011) mapped saltmarsh communities Saltmarsh and mangrove condition Every five years DELWP CMA Parks Victoria Marine Protected Area monitoring programs Invertebrate diversity, abundance Every two to five years DELWP Parks Victoria Parks Victoria Marine Protected Area monitoring programs Shorebird abundance and diversity (resident and migratory species) Bi-annual DELWP Current: Shorebirds 2020 Monitoring of breeding for beach nesting species Annual DELWP Parks Victoria Victorian Wader Studies Group Native fish: abundance and trends Annual DELWP Parks Victoria Marine National Parks Monitoring Program Intervention monitoring Intervention monitoring assesses the effectiveness of management actions in achieving desirable or stated outcomes and is an important part of an adaptive management approach. While there is solid scientific