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According to a new study, the Tampa Bay has lost thousands of acres of seagrass in only two years.
“Tampa Bay has lost more than 4,000 acres, or 12% of its seagrasses. That’s a big deal!”
That was Barbara Sheen Todd at today’s Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council meeting. The data is from a report on seagrass findings released by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Assistant director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Maya Burke, says that Tampa Bay was not always like this.
“So since 2016, which was when we had sort of reached peak coverage, we exceeded our restoration goals and had water as clear as it was in the 1950s to support more than 41,000 acres of seagrass to, now, we basically have seen a loss of more than 11,000 acres of seagrass and more than 6000 acres lost are in Tampa Bay!”
She blames the increase in nutrient pollutants for this dramatic change in seagrass.
“Nitrogen is the primary pollutant for Tampa Bay. That’s something that stimulates algae growth, and when we have too much algae growing in the water, it makes it hard for sunlight to reach from the surface of the bay all the way down to the bay bottom. And if sunlight can’t make its way all the way to the bays bottom then there’s no sunlight to support the growth of seagrasses.”
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program encourages people to reduce their nutrient pollution by skipping fertilizer during rainy summer months and driving fuel-efficient vehicles.
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