From the Division of Marine Fisheries · July 2, 2025 · By Forest Schenck
The Division of Marine Fisheries described a new effort to prepare for restoring eelgrass from seed instead of transplanting whole plants. The agency says Massachusetts has lost roughly half its eelgrass meadows, about 18,000 acres, over the past 30 years, while transplant projects have succeeded on only a few acres. Seeding could cover far larger areas, but nurseries cannot yet grow enough seed, so early projects will need to gather it from surviving wild meadows.
Because little is known about how much seed those meadows produce or when it ripens, DMF divers, working with restoration practitioners and researchers, are surveying meadows from Cape Cod and the Islands north to Salem Sound and Cape Ann. The work is funded by the EPA’s Southern New England Program and WHOI Sea Grant. The state says the results will guide how seed from remaining meadows is used to rebuild lost eelgrass, including in Cape and Islands waters.
This is CPWB’s summary of an official announcement. The full text is published by the Division of Marine Fisheries.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
