A Washington-based conservation foundation is hoping success of its first seagrass restoration project, now under way in the Keys, will lead to a seagrass mitigation fund for Florida. But some environmental groups criticize the effort.
Cammy Clark, Miami Herald 16 Jan 10;
MARATHON -- On 95 acres of ocean floor near the Seven Mile Bridge, a seagrass meadow damaged by boaters is Exhibit A in an environmental group's controversial quest to start a new marine mitigation fund for Florida.
Washington-based Ocean Foundation has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to create the fund as a way for private developers or public agencies to mitigate marine habitat destruction that occurs as a result of coastal construction projects.
An initial report on the restoration work at Knights Key Bank -- the foundation's pilot project funded with $45,000 in private donations -- shows some success repairing the important marine habitat.
But the program, called SeaGrass Grow, is being criticized by other environmental groups that say mitigation funds do more harm than good and that the foundation has no track record of long-term success restoring seagrass.
"I'm not against mitigation . . . but this type of restoration doesn't make ecological sense," said Roy "Robin" Lewis, president of the non-profit Coastal Resources Group.
Lewis, who in the '70s and '80s conducted the biggest seagrass mitigation project ever attempted in the Keys during the upgrading of the old Henry Flagler bridges, said the best way to fix seagrass damage is to let scars heal themselves and keep boats off the banks.
"The money should be spent putting up more channel markers, especially in the Keys that are tough to navigate," Lewis said.
The foundation says future coastal development is inevitable, so it's necessary to do aggressive restoration. "We as a conservation organization would prefer there never is harm done to any seagrass meadows anywhere to start with," said Mark Spalding, president of Ocean Foundation founded in 2002.
COASTAL PROJECT PROBLEMS
But, he said, the Army Corps sometimes allows coastal projects even though they damage seagrass. "We're stepping in at that moment, after the decision has been made to allow the project."
To many environmentalists, the idea sounds similar to a controversial amendment that Rep. Will Kendrick, R-Carrabelle, added to a state seagrass bill in 2008.
The amendment, on a bill that called for a $1,000 fine for careless boaters who rip up seagrass, would have created a mitigation program when the damage occurred on state-owned lands. The amendment so angered environmentalists that Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the entire bill, which had appeared headed to passage.
David Guest, an attorney with the environmental law firm EarthJustice, said Ocean Foundation's proposal is recycling the same bad idea. He said state mitigation banks, such as the one for wetlands, don't work because of a lack of enforcement and monitoring.
Under the foundation's proposal, the group would create and run an Aquatic Resource Fund for Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Agencies or developers building bridges, marinas and other coastal projects that damage seagrass beds would pay to restore double the amount of sea beds that would be destroyed.
The foundation would hire contractors to restore sea beds damage by propeller scars and vessel groundings, and monitor the site for five years. The foundation's program began as a charitable effort by private donors to repair valuable underwater meadows that provide marine habitat, protect coastlines from erosion and capture carbon to combat global warming.
"Seagrass is disappearing at an alarming rate, like coral reefs and the rain forests," Spalding said.
Florida has 2 million acres of seagrass, down from 5 million in the 1950s. One study from the 1990s indicated boaters had damaged 173,000 acres of seagrass statewide. Scientists say the damage likely is much worse today.
FIRST SEAGRASS PROJECT
For its first seagrass project at Knights Key Bank, the foundation hired Seagrass Recovery Inc. of Indian Rocks Beach to restore 4,000 square feet of scars and holes. The company used about 2,000 biodegradable sediment tubes to stabilize the ocean floor and allow recolonization of seagrass.
The company also planted some seagrass from other areas into the meter-long tubes made from special cotton fabric. Staples kept the transplanted seagrass from being washed away by the current. Company president Jeff Beggins estimated it will take 18 to 24 months for the seagrass to return to original density.
MONITORING SITE
Two weeks ago, Beggins viewed the site by boat, pointing out where the fast-growing manatee seagrass was blossoming over prop scars.
"We want to clear up some falsities out there that seagrass damage will just recover on its own and there's no reason to restore it," Beggins said. "That's not true."
The initial monitoring report by the company showed an average of 50 percent coverage of new seagrass. The report also said most of the transplanted seagrass died.
Seagrass expert Margaret Hall of the state's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute said her studies using the sediment tubes at other sites in the Keys shows promising results. But she added the cost of such restoration is expensive, and she believes money would be better spent on improving water quality.
When considering any seagrass mitigation plan, Sean Meehan, biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Restoration Center, said "caution flags should go up."
"We shouldn't destroy a football field of seagrass here because we think we can grow it over there," Meehan said. "Nobody can guarantee that. We need to protect what we have."
