Seagrass meadows play important roles by providing multiple ecosystem services. Seagrasses in North Sulawesi play an essential role as foraging habitats for marine megafauna such as dugongs and sea turtles that are classified as Vulnerable to Extinction by the IUCN Red List. Seagrasses are also ecosystems that are highly efficient at capturing and storing carbon dioxide which plays a vital role in mitigating climate change.

Seagrass monitoring is essential to understand the condition, distribution, and overall ecosystem health in North Sulawesi. Regular data collection conducted by using specific methods could provide valuable comparisons over time and across different areas. This data is crucial for environmental conservation and policy-making. It helps local communities to have a better understanding of their environment and empowers them to take informed conservation action to protect and sustain their natural heritage. On a larger scale, the data is important for the national government to formulate effective policies related to marine ecosystems. This data can also be used by conservation organizations as basic information to assess coastal ecosystem health, refine conservancy strategies, and predict future environmental changes.

One of seagrass monitoring in North Minahasa is conducted by spot-check using a drop camera method by Seagrasswatch. This monitoring aims to understand the condition of subtidal seagrass meadows at 1-25 meters of water depth. By conducting this method, the seabed can be visually assessed and the footage can be used for post-field analysis.

In this monitoring, a set of drop-camera assemblies including a 0.25m2 drop-cam frame equipped with an underwater camera is used to record the seagrass bed. Several points within a 5m radius were chosen to map subtidal seagrass and data was collected using 3 repetitions at each point to obtain spatial heterogeneity. In each monitoring, physical samples are also taken using a Van Veen grab to verify seagrass and sediment samples.

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