Welcome to SeagrassSoundings Blog

Welcome to SeagrassSoundings Blog



SeagrassSoundings focuses on the work that scientists and managers are doing to protect, preserve, study, restore and monitor seagrass in Massachusetts and throughout New England.


Monday, May 2, 2011

SeagrassNet April 2011

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries’ Seagrass team finished the April monitoring of  our  SeagrassNet site in Salem Sound.  The water was cold, 39° degrees, but our hearty dive team was happy to be out sampling again after a long winter, including heavy storms that prevented us from completing the January monitoring dives.

The West Beach, Salem Sound eelgrass bed continues to look good overall.  We had a mean  percent cover of 46%, mean canopy height of 35cm and our mean shoot density was 149 shoots/ m2 .  The plants are smaller now in early spring but they are growing fast and will be lush and over 1 meter tall by July.

Here are a few pictures fropm our transects: