The Restore Our Shores (ROS) conservation program has started planting small beds of seagrass in the lagoon for a new experimental project.
They want to learn more about where larger seagrass restoration efforts would thrive.
After just a few weeks, they’ve already found seagrass growing at many of the initial sites, so they’re hopeful about the rest of the plantings!
The Indian River Lagoon is a seagrass-based ecosystem. Seagrass meadows used to be prolific in the lagoon, offering a habitat and food source to a number of its inhabitants.
Seagrasses also anchor the seafloor and slow waves, protecting the shoreline. Algae superblooms brought on by nutrient pollutants in wastewater and stormwater blocked the sunlight to these meadows, killing off acres of seagrass – some nearly completely.