Chesapeake Bay underwater grasses dropped 25 percent Bay-wide, from 78,263 acres in 2005 to 59,090 acres in 2006, according to a study by the Chesapeake Bay Program. The drop marks the first setback for grasses after two years of moderate gains, while the total acreage reached its lowest since 1989.
Grasses in the upper Bay fell 20 percent to 15,510 acres. Middle Bay grasses fell 23 percent to 30,659 acres, and grasses in the lower Bay dropped to 12,922 acres, or 33 percent.
Scientists attribute declines to a very dry spring last year which raised salinity in middle and lower Bay areas, and to a freak rainstorm in early June which “muddied” much of the upper and mid-Bay for a month.
“They are the nursery habitat for a lot of different forms of young life in the Bay,” said Yonathan Zohar, director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. “If you have less grasses, you have less nursery habitat.”
The grasses provide habitat for fish and shellfish ? particularly hiding places for juvenile crabs ? help reduce shoreline erosion, absorb excess nutrients and trap sediment.
