By Kayla Buckingham
After years of a concerning amount of lost seagrass across Tampa Bay, the city of St. Petersburg is launching a massive summer project that aims to restore one of our water’s most critical natural resources.
The North Shore Park Seagrass Bank Mitigation Project is planning to rehabilitate more than 30 acres of seagrass beds and turn the tide on one of Florida’s most overlooked environmental crises.
Seagrass, the underwater plant that supports fish, feeds manatees and helps keep Florida’s waters clean, is vanishing at alarming rates. There’s a major concern of what this decline could mean for the health of Florida’s underwater ecosystems.
According to Steve Newborn at WUSF radio station, after decades of being on the mend, the number of seagrasses in Tampa Bay has decreased for three years in a row. That’s bad news for marine life, which depends on these grasses as a vital food source.
Seagrasses grow in shallow coastal waters and are often mistaken for seaweed, but they are actually flowering plants — the only type able to live fully submerged in saltwater
Known as the lungs of the sea, seagrass helps produce oxygen and absorb excess nutrients from the water.
“The North Shore Seagrass Mitigation Bank Project will help restore historical losses of natural habitat and plant native seagrass,” according to the city of St. Petersburg’s press release on the project.
The project was approved for over $150,000 in funding for its restoration efforts.
As seagrass meadows promote water quality and clarity, they also serve as nurseries for newborn fish, provide food for endangered manatees and support biodiversity for its waters.
Specifically, some key fish species that rely on seagrass are snook, redfish and speckled seatrout— all in which are vital catches for local fishermen. When asked if they have noticed any changes in bite activity, local fisherman Kyle Sommerschuh said he has noticed some decline in the past couple of years.
“It is definitely harder to catch snook than it used to be,” he said. “When I take people out to do some of the more laid-back kind of fishing, like for local species, I always go to seagrass beds. I’m not going to lie though, it is not uncommon to come back empty-handed.”
According to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Tampa Bay lost more than 6,300 acres of seagrass between 2018 and 2022—a roughly 16% decline. More recent data released in 2023 found that in just over two years, another 4,100 acres were lost.
In some areas near Old Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough River, the damage is even more severe.
Brianna Varner, a member of Tampa Bay Watch who participates in numerous conservation projects for the area, said there are a couple of reasons why Seagrass has been in trouble.
“Unfortunately, all of our pollution ends up in the Bay, which causes an excess of nutrients,” Varner said. “Not only does it make our water really gross, but in turn, it can cause red tide, harmful algae blooms and it also can kill our seagrass.”
Rising water temperatures is another culprit for the harm on our Seagrass. Marine scientists have been working for years to reverse the effects of coral bleaching, a state that coral goes into when the water is too warm. Just like coral, seagrass also bleaches.
According to a Tampa Bay Watch conservationist, rising temperatures have begun affecting seagrass health, causing it to lose some of its color — but human activity remains one of the greatest threats.
“People affect seagrass in a couple different ways,” Varner said. “First one being habitat loss, due to the development of beaches, which clears out seagrass habitats. You may have also heard of prop scars. When boaters leave the marked channels, they are usually going through seagrass beds. A lot of the time this is super damaging and tears up the seagrass, leaving prop scars.”
The city said it plans to restore 178 acres from North Shore Park into a protected habitat for seagrass, as well as four other types of aquatic vegetation.
According to St. Petersburg officials, this project is said to be Florida’s first and one of the largest seagrass projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
The community can take part by volunteering for the project or helping to raise awareness. More information, including how to get involved, is available at https://tampabaywatch.org/.