Cord Grass: The First Step In Shoreline Restoration
Check out the new sign at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens! It’s all about shoreline restoration, promoting mangrove colonization and the importance of the intertidal zone to the health of our bays. Sarasota Bay Watch partnered with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and START to create a sign highlighting the cord grass meadow planted by Sarasota Bay Estuary Program on Selby’s shoreline. The sign invites Selby Gardens visitors to look out into the bay and consider the role of the littoral zone that connects the land with the water. This zone absorbs wave energy, controls land erosion, provides habitat for a diverse range of marine and terrestrial species and serves as a nursery that cradles and protects young marine life. Plans are underway to make this sign and overlook a mobile phone stop on the Watershed Audio Tour of Sarasota, which is sponsored by the Science and Environment Council of Southwest Florida.
Visit: http://www.scienceandenvironment.org/projects/mobile-phone-tour/ to hear all the stops on the Watershed Audio Tour.
Marine Debris A Growing Concern
SBW is proud to be part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
(NOAA) first Marine Debris Management Plan Meeting, held recently at Florida’s Fish
& Wildlife Research Institute in St. Pete. The working group brainstormed ways to
address the growing marine debris dilemma that threatens our waters, wildlife,
ecosystems, and economy.
SAVE THE DATE!
August 9th is the 4th Annual Scallopalooza – a fundraiser for our Scallop Restoration Project (in the last 2 years we have released about 54 million larval scallops into the bay in an effort to re-establish stable breeding populations of scallops). This event is held at the lovely Sarasota Yacht Club, right on the water’s edge. Come out for a night of fun to support scallop restoration! Sign up online at sarasotabaywatch.org
