Sea Grass

Replanting sea grass does not work. If sea grass can grow somewhere…it does. Marine biologists agree that sea grass is essential for young fish and turtle habitat and it is one of the many reasons it is protected. Sarasota County's plan calls for digging up 12.5 acres of sea grass and transplanting it in the old Intracoastal Waterway channel.  They predict that 12.5 acres of transplanted sea grass will magically become 86 acres of sea grass.

 

Seagrasses are flowering plants that live underwater. Like land plants, seagrasses produce oxygen. The depth at which seagrasses are found is limited by water clarity because they require light. Seagrasses occur in protected bays and lagoons and also in places along the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.Florida's estimated 502,000 acres of seagrasses are important natural resources that perform many significant functions:

1) they help maintain water clarity by trapping fine sediments and particles with their leaves; 

2) they can stabilize the bottom with their roots and rhizomes in much the same way that land grasses retard soil erosion;

3) they provide habitat for many fishes, crustaceans, and shellfish;

4) seagrasses and the organisms that grow on them are food for many marine animals, and most importantly;

5) they are nursery areas for much of Florida's recreationally and commercially important marine life.

Seagrass leaves provide excellent protection for young marine animals from larger open-water predators. Some animals, such as manatees, eat seagrass blades. Other animals derive nutrition from eating algae and small animals that colonize seagrass leaves. These colonizing organisms provide an additional link in the marine food chain.

Source: www.seagrass.net

Midnight Pass Permit Was Denied in 1991

What Can I Do?

If you think we should leave Midnight Pass Alone, here are three ways you can help.