PALM SHORES, Fla. – For nearly two years, we’ve been following the progress of a project by the Brevard Zoo’s Restore Our Shores (ROS) program.
The conservation and restoration arm of the zoo has been planting and monitoring seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon.
Until now, that grass has been coming from commercial nurseries around the state.
But they just reached a new milestone — one that came with a surprise.
The ROS team, along with volunteers, gathered at Shore Side Park in the town of Palm Shores.
Vonn Schneider, Conservation Restoration Coordinator, waded out into the knee-high water just south of the Pineda Causeway.
“They’re getting ready to plant. We have two beds here,” Schneider explained, pointing to rows of white stakes out in the water. “They just started monitoring the second bed, which means we can start bringing out the grass planting units.”
Volunteers swam face down in the shallow water where visibility was very low.
Each planting unit, which is little more than a few blades of grass, is wrapped around a metal stake and then pushed into the riverbed, where hopefully it will grow.
The ROS team used seagrass cultivated at its newly established nursery. The nursery, built in collaboration with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI) in Melbourne Beach, became operational in 2023.
News 6 visited the nursery and spoke with Jeff Eble, Florida Program Director for Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, last year.
“While there’s still some work to tune this system, to increase its productivity, ultimately this is how we are going to restore the lagoon,” Eble said. “Just waiting for the lagoon to heal itself isn’t going to be enough.”
For now, the nursery is growing Halodule wrightii, commonly known as shoal grass.
The project is aimed at investigating the interactions between the macroalgae and shoal grass.
“This project is important,” Schneider said. “So that we can more effectively choose sites for restoration efforts.”
The project is part of a broader effort to restore the lagoon’s ecosystem, which has suffered from declining seagrass populations in recent years. “Historically, seagrass was very thick throughout the lagoon, and we’ve seen its decline. We’re trying to build back the natural stock that we’ve seen in the past,” Vonn Schneider said.
Some estimates conclude the Indian River Lagoon has lost more than 90% of its seagrass since the 1970s.
Scientists think it’s mostly due to stormwater runoff, leaky septic tanks, and fertilizers.
“Folks that were here as recently as 2010 would be familiar with a lagoon that was rich in seagrass, rich in fish, and we’re a long ways from that now,” Eble said. “We’ve lost a lot over the last 12-13 years. But with efforts like the zoo and other partners all working together, that’s how we’re going to get to a solution where we have a habitat that reminds folks of what we had back then.”
Seagrass plays a crucial role in maintaining the health of marine ecosystems. It provides food and habitat for various marine organisms, stabilizes sediment, and helps filter nutrients from the water column. “Seagrass is a keystone species because so many things depend on a natural seagrass bed,” Von Schneider explained.
One of the most exciting developments was the discovery of a rare flowering event in the nursery. “Which is very exciting because it means that we could possibly use the seeds from that for a seed bank for future restoration,” Schneider said, as he described the tiny flower.
“It just looks like a little grain of rice. A little piece of brown rice,” Schneider said, pointing to one of the flowers with a piece of wire.
This flowering event is rare in nursery settings and could significantly enhance restoration efforts.
“Finding the male Halodule flowers is a big win for us. We believe this is a rare occurrence in a nursery setting to have Halodule flower,” he added. “Hopefully, we can reproduce this event and publish it, and other nurseries can use it to create a seed stock."
“As we learn more about how to grow seagrass, how to transplant sea-grass, how to actually cultivate a bed of seagrass off shore,” Eble continued. “If we can recreate the ecosystem services that a natural bed used to provide, with that information we’re going to get to a place where we can actually help restore this lagoon.”
The team will monitor the plantings over the summer months and document their findings.