Monitoring programs and results - Office of the Environmental Monitor

Port Phillip Bay Monitoring Programs



Port Phillip Bay attracts more than 40 million visits a year and is home to more than 3.5 million people; making it Australia’s most intensively used coastal water body.

The Bay is of significant social, economic and environmental value to Victoria. Therefore, the Bay’s health is important to the communities and businesses living and operating along its shoreline and to the marine life that rely on its health to survive.

To avoid, minimise and control the environmental effects to the Bay from the Channel Deepening Project, a set of rules were developed to control when, where and how dredging could be delivered.

Supporting these rules is a suite of more than 20 environmental monitoring programs that will collect information on the Bay’s health from 2008 to 2012.

The programs aim to keep a close watch on the Bay’s ‘vital signs’ and each program will examine different aspects of the Bay’s health. The programs include ongoing monitoring of the Bay and monitoring that is specifically designed to minimise and manage the environmental effects of the Project on the Bay.

More than 200 ‘vital sign’ indicators will be monitored on timescales ranging from every minute for indicators that respond quickly, through to daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually, for changes that happen more slowly.

The information from these monitoring programs is assessed by the Office to inform its judgement on the overall environmental performance of the Channel Deepening Project.

For more information and results from the monitoring programs operating across the Bay click on the links below.

Water Quality:
Water Quality Monitoring Program
Beach Monitoring Program
Turbidity Monitoring Program
Plume Intensity & Extent Monitoring Program
Nutrient Cycling Monitoring Program
Algal Blooms Monitoring Program
Water Quality in Port Phillip & Westernport Catchment Monitoring Program
Bacterial Contamination in the Yarra River Monitoring Program
Plants and Animals:
Little Penguins Monitoring Program
Seagrass Monitoring Program
Ramsar-Listed Wetlands Monitoring Program
Biodiversity in Marine Protected Environments Monitoring Program

Fish Stocks:
Fish Stock & Recruitment Monitoring Program
Commercial Catch & Effort Monitoring Program
Juvenile Snapper Monitoring Program
Commerical Catch of Snapper Monitoring Program
Juvenile King George Whiting Monitoring Program
Commercial Catch of King George Whiting Monitoring Program
Contaminants in Fish:
Contaminants in Fish Monitoring Program
Victorian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program
Environmental Limits:
Turbidity Monitoring Program
Noise Monitoring Programs