NOAA Fisheries Image Gallery

Volunteers prep eelgrass for planting

Picture by: Thomas Freeman Picture taken on: June 11th, 2004

Tags: Unedited

Eelgrass beds provide nursery, foraging, and spawning habitat for many types of finfish and shellfish, including several commercially and recreationally valuable species. They also filter sediment from water and protect shorelines from the impacts of storm waves. In the last century, eelgrass beds in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay have been damaged by disease, storms, and coastal development. NOAA supported Save the Bay and other restoration partners to implement large-scale, volunteer-based programs to restore the Bay’s eelgrass beds. Volunteers collected live plants from donor beds, placed them in frames, and placed them on the Bay’s bottom.

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