Darwin Harbour in good health
Westra Van Holthe, Willem
Country Liberals
Media Releases for 12th Assembly 2012 - 2016; Media Releases; ParliamentNT
2015-03-04
Darwin
Made available by via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT)
English
Oceans; Marine life
Northern Territory Government
application/pdf
Issued as a Media Release
Northern Territory Government
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/254788
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/528215
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/528211; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/528213
5 4. Sites and sampling method Darwin Harbour water quality data were collected from water samples and analysed in the laboratory, and by field measurements for the period of July 2013 to September 2014. Broad scale, ambient water quality monitoring was undertaken by the Aquatic Health Unit of the Department of Land Resource Management, whilst more spatially targeted monitoring was undertaken by the PowerWater Corporation as part of its wastewater discharge license. Water quality monitoring in the vicinity of the upper reaches of the Blackmore River was undertaken by the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries for the aquaculture industry. The sites monitored by these organisations in 2014 were similar to those monitored in 2013. Data collection is biased towards the dry season, due to the often unsafe and difficult sea conditions present during the wet season. At each site, surface water (approximately 0.25 m depth) was measured for pH, dissolved oxygen (%saturation), salinity and temperature using a multi-parameter probe. Turbidity was measured with a turbidity meter. Total Suspended Solids (TSS) was derived from the relationship between Turbidity and TSS established in 2013 (Mauraud, 2013). More detail on this relationship is in Appendix 1. Water samples were collected from the surface in plastic bottles then stored on ice in the field for the laboratory analysis of nutrients (nitrogen oxides (nitrate and nitrite), ammonia, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and filterable reactive phosphorus) and chlorophyll a. The number of sampled sites and number of samples is summarised in Table 4, and site location shown in Figure 2. Table 4 - Sites and sample number for each reporting zone. Methods Indicators Elizabeth Upper Myrmidon Creek Blackmore Upper West Arm East Arm Middle Harbour Outer Harbour Shoal Bay Buffalo Creek Number of sites 17 9 36 14 13 9 20 10 5 Number of samples 32 98 70 90 90 18 153 20 67