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April 17, 2018

What is an estuary?

What is an estuary?

Well.. think of the waterways around Jervis Bay- Moona Moona Creek, Currambene Creek, OR St Georges Basin (they are just local examples)

An estuary is somewhere that may be a temporarily or permanently exposed to the sea and subject to tidal changes. They can be as big as Sydney harbour or small lakes and lagoons.

Why are they important?

Estuaries are the heart of range of ecosystems and are constantly changing. They are the nursery grounds for many fish speices we see in Jervis Bay and which our dolphins feed on.

Estuaries are super important for filtering water and keeping our special bay pristine!

These habitats provide places for thousands of bird species to live and migrate to. Some visiting birds have travelled far and wide and are even protected by international agreements like RAMSAR.

How did we find this out?

What we have observed and learnt over time and:

https://schoolsequella.det.nsw.edu.au/…/applets/e…/index.htm

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/…/sta…/CurrambeneCreek.htm

 

Our cruises depart daily from the enterance of the biggest estuary flowing into Jervis Bay, often beneath the boats you can see schools of small fish seeking refuge.

 

"We had a whale of a time"

We booked ourselves on a 3 hour whale watch cruise. Since we had 2 children (age 2 and 4) in our group, we felt a bigger boat would be more comfortable compared to a smaller one. It was our lucky day as we did not have to travel far before we came across a mother whale and her pup