Why did eelgrass beds disappear?
George Kidder, a senior scientist who’s been at the Biolab for 30 years, believes modern fishing practices caused the decimation. Specifically, he blames the harvesting of other species of marine organisms by dragging the bottom of the bay. “When you harvest mussels for instance, you pull up a sample of the bottom, keep the mussels and throw what’s left of the eelgrass back overboard,” Kidder says. He adds that the process of uprooting is a form of clear cutting. “But because it occurs below the water, most people don’t see it. If they did see it,” he says, “they would be outraged.” Restoring eelgrass to the bay For the past three years, Kidder and Disney have worked with citizen scientists to restore this essential underwater plant to Frenchman Bay. Kidder says eelgrass restoration involves three basic steps. “Part of the job is research; finding out how best to do this. The second part of the job obviously is to do it; to try to promote as much eelgrass restoration as we can in the p
