Connecting citizen scientists with our bay

EELGRASS

Pleasant Bay Stewards were involved in a pilot eelgrass monitoring and restoration effort encouraging community engagement and action in marine science. Eelgrass is one of 72 seagrass species globally. In the North Atlantic, eelgrass naturally grows on the North American east coast as well as the west coast of Europe. Being an aquatic plant, eelgrass takes in carbon dioxide and nitrogen, releasing oxygen. According to Project Seagrass, only one acre of seagrass can provide enough oxygen in one day for nearly 100 people. With global warming and a history of harmful fishing practices, eelgrass populations around the world are at risk. Luckily, there’s a small yet determined group of scientists working to restore and protect eelgrass, as well as educate the community about its importance to our marine ecosystems. On Cape Cod, Pleasant Bay Stewards hopes that by creating a team of citizen scientists, we will be able to map eelgrass, collect seeds for planting, and then disperse seeds across the beds as a means of adding to the natural population and restoring it to its former density.

PBCB has partnered with the Cape Cod National Seashore to explore eelgrass beds, harvest and plant seeds, and most recently has offered space in our upweller as a safe space for eelgrass seed storage.

KELP

What are the benefits of growing kelp? The benefits of kelp are mostly that is a winter crop which makes it preferable to grow on Cape Cod because boat traffic will be less in the winter and it won’t get in anyone’s way. Kelp is great, too, because it isn’t like a garden; it doesn’t require as much. You don’t have to add soil and water and fertilizer like you would in a garden. Once in the ocean, it will thrive just off the nutrient-rich waters of Pleasant Bay.

There’s some evidence that kelp can mitigate ocean acidification by taking in carbon dioxide and nitrogen in our waters and producing oxygen. But, that would probably happen on a very small scale. It’s good for the environment, but mostly it is a kind of local remediation.

Harvested kelp has been used for all kinds of things. You can cook with it, make fish feed out of it, maybe use it to make biofuel or a natural fertilizer. It makes the perfect natural fertilizer alternative to some of the harsh chemical fertilizers that can pollute our water systems on Cape Cod.

Pleasant Bay Community Boating is lucky to have partnered with Chatham Kelp farmers to have transferred lab-grown kelp to the bay. The kelp hung from a horizontal line, anchored on both ends. The kelp was left to grow and absorb excess nutrients in Pleasant Bay, then harvested for use. Cape Cod has many nutrient rich estuaries that could benefit from the filtering that kelp provides.