The 2014 eelgrass field season is well underway and it is shaping up to be a busy one. The weather has not been very cooperative though we are finally starting to see some warmer temperatures and clear skies. Having mostly completed our planting for the Hub3 project over the last 3 field seasons, the focus is now shifting to mostly monitoring. But we do have a few more planting days to augment the transplants and to plant a new site at Peddocks Island, Boston Harbor.

Transplanted eelgrass at Great Brewster Island.

In April we checked two of our sites (Green Island and Great Brewster Island) in Boston Harbor to get an idea of how our transplants fared through the harsh winter. The plants appeared to be well rooted and healthy. As time allows throughout the field season, we will be supplementing the initial plantings at our restoration sites in Salem Sound and Boston Harbor. We planted a test plot at a new site near Peddocks Island that we will monitor soon. We will be monitoring our restored sites and reference beds along with quarterly SeagrassNet monitoring in July. Upon installation of new conservation moorings in various harbors along the North Shore and Cape Cod, we will be conducting ‘time-zero’ monitoring to develop a baseline in order to track the success of the conservation moorings. We will also continue to monitor existing conservation moorings in Manchester Harbor and West Falmouth Harbor.

DMF diver.