[Editors] MIT works to replenish eelgrass in harbors

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
Phone: 617-253-2700
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www

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MIT works to replenish eelgrass in harbors

--Program is also hands-on education for kids
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For Immediate Release
TUESDAY, MAR. 13, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth A. Thomson, MIT News Office
Phone: 617-258-5402
Email: thomson at mit.edu

PHOTO AVAILABLE

A project led by MIT Sea Grant to bring a special plant back to 
Boston-area harbors is also giving students in Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island a hands-on education in the importance of healthy marine 
ecosystems.

Eelgrass--a delicate, flowering marine plant--is a primary source of 
food for many plants and animals, as well as a critical nursery and 
shelter for shellfish and finfish. It also filters pollutants from 
the water column, is a key component of the nutrient cycle and guards 
against shoreline erosion by quelling wave energy. In short, eelgrass 
is extraordinarily useful in maintaining healthy marine ecosystems.

Once abundant in New England waters, this species of plant was 
largely wiped out in the region in the 1930s due to a wasting 
disease. For decades, coastal development and pollution made the 
restoration of these grasses all but impossible. However, improved 
water quality in Massachusetts' coastal waters is now giving eelgrass 
a second chance. And this, in turn, has given middle and high school 
students the chance to get involved with bringing eelgrass back.

Since 2004, MIT Sea Grant has been engaging public school students in 
hands-on learning, with classes growing eelgrass in recirculating 
aquaculture systems. Developed in collaboration with the 
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, the eelgrass 
curriculum teaches students not only about the history and importance 
of eelgrass, but also includes biology and ecology, graphing data, 
and water quality testing.

The eelgrass restoration project is also supported by the 
Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts Division of Marine 
Fisheries and the city of Gloucester.
Last summer a team including scientists, educators and students spent 
a full day rescuing some 6,000 eelgrass plants from Gloucester 
Harbor, where dredging had begun to make way for a new 550-foot 
stormwater outfall pipe.

The plants were gathered by divers from about 18 feet down in the 
harbor. Volunteers then separated them into individual shoots that 
were planted in several locations in Boston Harbor, at a depth of 
roughly 15 feet. The density and size of the eelgrass beds are 
monitored twice a year.

In a second effort last fall, another 6,000 shoots were gathered by 
divers and separated by students.

In an experiment to test different methods of storing and growing 
eelgrass, roughly half of the plants gathered in the fall are being 
housed in a 1,000-gallon tank at Gloucester's Maritime Heritage 
Center, where MIT Sea Grant has its marine finfish hatchery. The tank 
is stocked with sea stars, crabs, lobsters and fish, thereby 
recreating the plants' natural ecosystem and keeping algae in check.

The other plants were woven into a floating raft made of coconut 
fibers, now wintering underwater on a pier near the hatchery. 
Essentially a mattress of eelgrass, this method of maintaining and 
growing eelgrass is a new one, says Brandy Wilbur, MIT Sea Grant 
education coordinator and aquaculture specialist.

The researchers will continue to collect data through the winter to 
document the survival and growth of the eelgrass. Come spring, the 
plan is to transplant the eelgrass back into Gloucester Harbor and/or 
the Annisquam River.

For now, the eelgrass in transition offers visitors to the hatchery a 
chance to learn about the importance of healthy marine ecosystems. 
And students at Minuteman Regional High, Essex Agriculture High 
School, Rockport High School, Swampscott Middle School, Odyssey High 
School in South Boston, Wellesley's Dana Hall and The Gordon School 
in East Providence, R.I., are all experimenting with different 
methods of raising eelgrass, which can then potentially be reseeded 
in local waters.

Regardless of how many plants make it through the winter, says 
Wilbur, "this project has already been extremely successful because 
of all the collaboration and outreach. "
For more information, or if your classroom is interested in 
participating, please visit seagrantdev.mit.edu/eelgrass.

--END--

Written by Andrea Cohen, MIT Sea Grant
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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Senior Science and Engineering Editor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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