What are the signs of a healthy habitat? What makes a healthy estuary?
What sorts of constructive additions can we, as a community, make to the Harraseeket?
"Eelgrass provides a number of important ecosystem functions, including foraging areas and shelter to young fish and invertebrates, food for migratory waterfowl (...) By trapping sediment, stabilizing the substrate, and reducing the force of wave energy, eelgrass beds also reduce coastal erosion. In fact, eelgrass forms the base of a highly productive marine food web.
The unique habitat also produces food and oxygen, improves water quality by filtering polluted runoff, absorbs excess nutrients, stores greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and protects the shoreline from erosion.
Many people are unaware of the importance this plant plays in the marine environment. As a result, there has been significant degradation of eelgrass, primarily from human impacts such as [wastewater], dredging, pollution, and sediment runoff from upland areas."
State of Casco Bay: Changes in Eelgrass Beds 2013-2018
Note: According to the presentation made at Freeport's recent environmental planning workshop, the rebound has not lasted and we now find less than 3 acres of eelgrass in our waters.
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