Water Quality Restores Seagrasses in Tampa, USA

Frank Sargeant, The Tampa Tribune 9 Mar 08;

When I first came to the Bay area in 1984, Tampa Bay was a mess.

There was so much algae in the water that seeing bottom in more than a foot of water was impossible along nearly all of the shoreline inside the Skyway. The floating detritus was so thick that millions of shad, which thrive only where there's polluted water, were the primary species of fish found here. The only grass along most of the South Shore area was rolling moss, a type of mesh-like algae, and sea lettuce, another unproductive plant that thrives in dirty water.

In the years since, the bay has become a national example of what can be done to clean and improve our coastal waters. Sewage treatment plants, storm water control, an end to dredge-and-fill operations and vast restoration efforts along shorelines produced dramatic improvements in water quality.

A recent study released by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program found only three isolated areas where water quality targets were not being met. The rest of the bay is now rated to have good water quality, even Hillsborough Bay, which for years was little more than a cesspool for the city of Tampa.

The three marginal areas are in Old Tampa Bay, the portion of the bay spanned by the Gandy and Howard Frankland bridges - and even those areas seem to be a temporary blip. They had good water quality in the 2006 survey but sagged a bit in 2007.

The turnaround in water quality has resulted in an amazing recovery of the habitat. Nanette O'Hara of TBEP said seagrasses have grown back on more than 6,000 acres of the shallows and total some 28,299 acres, more than at any time since 1950. The productive grasses grow only in areas where sunlight penetrates to bottom, and in much of the bay that depth is now six feet or more.

The restoration of the habitat has had a dramatic impact on fish populations. The shad are all but gone, replaced by sardines and threadfins (the food) and snook, trout, redfish, tarpon, mackerel, bluefish and more (the predators). There are even shrimp so abundant that netters scoop them up by the buckets after dark around some of the bridges - because of the better water quality, and because conservation leaders helped push the shrimp boats out of Tampa Bay.

Last summer, the annual Tampa Bay Watch scallop survey turned up dozens of bay scallops in waters that for years had near zero. Scallops are the canary in the mine when it comes to water quality; they live only where water is clear and seagrass healthy, and they seem to be returning to Tampa Bay.

To be sure, there are still lots of concerns when it comes to Tampa Bay's future: more development and runoff, tapping the freshwater that feeds the estuaries; phosphate mining in the headwaters of some rivers, prop damage to seagrass beds; and more. But in general, the bay is in surprisingly good shape, and seems destined to get better as long as we hold the course. It's a testament to what can be done when a community is determined to save its greatest natural asset.

TBEP is now offering a Bay-Friendly Boater Kit to boaters and anglers new to Tampa Bay. It includes a nautical chart of the bay with seagrass beds marked so boaters can avoid running through them. The chart also acts as a fishing guide, showing the grass where the fish are most likely to be. (Motors up, and entry by push-pole, of course.) The kit also includes rules of the road, indicating the meaning of marine markers, and info on manatee avoidance and manatee protection zones.