EC #18A: Eelgrass and the Blue Crab, Friend or Foe?

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EC #18-A:  Eelgrass and the Blue Crab, Friend or Foe?
A Century of Habitat Change and Public Policy Around Submerged Vegetation
Energy and Soil Relationships to Submerged Vegetation and Bacteria
Tim Visel, The Sound School
New Haven, CT
May, 2020
Viewpoint of Tim Visel, no other agency or organization
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Environment Conservation Thread

Readers should review EC #17-B posted April 12, 2019 on The Blue Crab ForumTM Environmental Conservation Thread
-This is the first of a two-part series-
-This is a Delayed Report -

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A Note from Tim Visel
Should eelgrass habitat research also include eelgrass soil chemistry?

Growing up along the shore in central Connecticut lobstering with my brother Raymond, we often noticed eelgrass would collect in our menhaden gillnet.  It showed up after a moontide or after a storm.  It made picking out menhaden slower and supplies to bait stores arrived later that day but we never thought much about it.  In deeper water with our wood lobster traps, we experienced at times loose kelp.  In the 1970's, eelgrass was recognized as important to bay scallops but we just did not see many scallops except for a few every fall along Hammonasset Beach, Madison, CT.  In 1978, the Milford Shellfish Laboratory (NOAA) had an excess of small seed scallops.  So, after hearing that Clinton did have a small scallop fishery in the 1940's and 1950's, a transplant was suggested and was made to an area north of the barrier split known as Cedar Island.  It is then that I learned that eelgrass was in the outer harbor with the scallops, that the north side of the Island was once held softshell clams, not bay scallops.  Tests with oyster tongs and later a hydraulic jet revealed and validated the successional aspects of eelgrass.  Here under a dense mat of eelgrass were the remains of long ago dead softshell clams we called steamers.  It was also quite clear that before the eelgrass this habitat was once a large clam bed (See Appendix #1). 

There is also little doubt that eelgrass helps the blue crab, both as a reef that provides similar predator/prey habitat services and also assists the retention of blue crab megalops.  However, many vegetation types can provide these habitat services dependent upon temperature and salinity.  We have the long-term study of Currituck Sound to point to the opening and closing of Currituck inlet to the relationship of oysters and blue crabs to submerged vegetation.  The eelgrass problem, as I mentioned two decades ago, is that it is a transitional habitat type very dependent upon the chemistry of the soil in which it lives.  When the soil is "new" and healthy, a "clean and green" eelgrass benefits countless organisms.  When the soil is "old," a "brown and furry" eelgrass (and other submerged grasses) assists the sulfur cycle and, in doing so, becomes a deadly sulfide-rich toxic habitat.  Much of that I would learn about on Cape Cod in the early 1980's.

In the years that followed Cape Cod, I would learn about the other side of eelgrass, a pattern of natural expansion and contraction that, at times, dominated shallow water habitats.  At a time that eelgrass reached maximum coverage was in the middle of a long hot/low energy period, the 1900's.  This is also a time upon which the bay scallop was scarce and catches dropped to almost zero in New England.  I would also learn that in the cold storm-filled 1870's, Greenwich, Connecticut was New England's bay scallop capital.  There is little correlation to eelgrass and bay scallop catches over time.  I never thought that someday eelgrass would become a part of a national estuarine policy.

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Monocultures and Sulfate/Sulfide Soil Metabolism

The expansion and contraction of eelgrass appears to be related to natural soil cycles.  Well cultivated soils experience eelgrass expansion, and then as soil conditions change/succeed, over time disease and sulfide toxicity sets in.  Dieoffs appear in the oldest and/or poorest soil conditions (sulfides) and may look like a ring.  Eelgrass "rings," called grass fairy rings in the literature, and have been documented and connected to soil sulfide formation.  Sulfides accumulate in soils when they are warm and oxygen-limited.  In other words, they can be climate induced, which explains the worldwide eelgrass dieoff in the late 1920's in the Atlantic Ocean, the end of a period of extreme heat.  This happened again about a century later as rings appeared in eelgrass meadows in the Baltic Ocean off the coast of Denmark.  The following is an excerpt from the National Geographic Society Newsroom article about these eelgrass death rings by Liz Langley, February 6, 2014:

"In 2008, a tourist photographed some bizarre circles on the seafloor in shallow waters of the Baltic Ocean, off the chalky cliffs of Man, Denmark.  The images piqued public interest with people offering intriguing guesses that included World War II and alien crop circles.  Now scientists have an answer, sulfide, a toxic substance that accumulates on the ocean bottom, is stunting vegetation called eelgrass, creating rings of healthier plants around these diseased zones.

Biologists Marianne Holmer at the University of Southern Denmark and Jen Borum at the University of Copenhagen studied samples from five of the circular patches, which ranged from 6.5 to 49 feet (2 to 15 meters) in diameter, as well as the mud accumulating among the eelgrass plants.

The team found that on the inner parts of the ring, the eelgrass roots and leaves were shorter, less dense, and overall less robust.  They also found the mud was high in sulfide, a chemical compound of sulfur that's released when plants die.

Sulfide usually bonds with iron, which is naturally found in the ocean.  But in the chalky, iron-poor sediments in this area of Denmark, sulfide accumulates in the sediment where it is eventually taken up by older eelgrass plants, according to the study published February 2014 in the journal Marine Biology.  Eelgrass grows radially, or out from a central point.  So the older plants that are more exposed to the sulfide and thus weaker are in the middle, with healthier younger plants around the perimeter, explaining the rings."

Monocultures and climate related dieoffs in terrestrial grasses also happen on land as indicated in a plant disease diagnostic clinical fact sheet on grass rings "Fairy Rings on Turfgrass" published by Cornell University Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic:

"Fairy rings are not usually a lethal threat to the affected turf, but sometimes a ring of dead grass occurs in addition to the ring of stimulated grass growth.  Death in the ring may be due to several factors.  The presence of dense mats of fungal mycelium may interfere with penetration of water into the soil, a toxic substance may be given off by the fungus in the soil, or the fungus may have a great effect on the health of the grass plants."

Further, from the Environmental Institute of Golf (2007):

"The accumulation of sulfur in soil underlying those necrotic zones is also related to low soil microbial activity.  High concentrations of sulfur can lead to the production of hydrogen sulfide, H2S, which is toxic to plant roots and can combine with iron to create a "black layer" soil with low levels of oxygen."

Eelgrass in New England reached its maximum coverage in the early 1920's.  By the mid-1930's, eelgrass was dying off, a "wasting process" in which eelgrass turned black and died.  Temperatures cooled and storm energy increased, allowing eelgrass meadows that grew to incredible depths and coverage to now vanish.  We have the observations and reports of botanists during this period, including George Nichols, who published bulletins at the end of this period in the 1920's (Torrey Botanical Club) that eelgrass survived out to depths of 75 feet.

Because the concept of soil succession was not reviewed in previous eelgrass discussions, the climate impacts of sulfate bacterial metabolism were often omitted.  A long period of heat and very few storms allowed bacterial sulfate reducers to dominate and soils become sulfide-rich, then in cooler waters with more oxygen the formation of sulfuric acids.  The sulfide/sulfuric acid soil transition so weakened eelgrass that it succumbed to fungal attack as described a century before.  Sulfide toxin information was not available to eelgrass researchers a century ago.  However, this long known toxin effect has only been recently reported.   We tend to ignore sulfate metabolism as a factor in dieoffs of eelgrass although terrestrial studies of grass culture long identified (a century before) organic/bacterial processes that produced sulfide.  Even today, sulfide soil information is often missing from estuarine studies, and many of those include studies about eelgrass.  A historical review of climate and possible soil conditions to eelgrass growth now appears to be warranted – my view, Tim Visel.

Nichols, writing in the 1920 Bulletin of the Torrey Club, describes the dominance of eelgrass on pages 522-523 below (The Vegetation of Connecticut VII):

"The most distinctive plant of muddy bottoms along the seacoast is eelgrass.  As already noted, this also grows on sandy bottoms but it never attains there the luxuriance which it exhibits where growing on muddy bottoms from mean low tide level, or slightly above, the eelgrass ranges downward to considerable depths, being recorded by B.M. Davis (13) as growing in water as much as 75 feet deep in the Woods Hole region; but it is in the upper sublittoral that it flourishes best.  So prolifically does it thrive in the shallow waters of protected harbors and coves, that at low tide, large areas of muddy bottom here will be almost completely hidden by its clusters of long slender leaves."

But its association to benthic shellfish populations, especially to bay scallops, needs a review; at this period of habitat dominance, bay scallop catches were extremely low (1890's).  In fact, shellfish researchers had a very different perspective regarding eelgrass and the bay scallop and at times a negative one.  Bay scallopers for example watched as eelgrass took over the clear bottoms as scallops no longer grew to marketable size in it.  They soon became "stunted" and of low market value – low weight meats.

During the same time period of George Nichols, Dr. David Belding was completing his famous series about the shellfisheries of Massachusetts for the state of Massachusetts (recently reprinted by the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Service in 2004).  Dr. Belding's research details the successive characteristics of eelgrass transitioning habitats to favor itself – the collection of organic matter that suffocates shellfish living beneath it.

On the growth of softshell clams, Belding writes:

"eelgrass: Eelgrass as we have seen is fatal to a good clam bed (softshells clams Mya – Tim Visel).  Many productive beds would be quickly spoiled by eelgrass if it were not for constant digging.  The grass raises the surface of the bed above the normal level, by bringing in silt, which smothers the clams.  The reclamation of such flats can be accomplished by destroying the grass and allowing water to carry away the accumulated muddy deposits.  At Newburyport an eelgrass flat with a surface layer of soft mud was converted into a productive hard flat by digging.  A strong current removed the loosened material, and a new flat about one foot lower than the original was formed."

It is not that eelgrass provides significant habitat benefits to some species, such as a blue crab, it does, but over time in shallow waters, those benefits are not sustainable.  In shallow waters, the impact of heat and low energy transforms eelgrass growths to a disease/pathogen reservoir for bacteria, fungus and molds.  In many areas, it is natural for eelgrass to move into and then from the same shallows.  It is a biochemical relationship of heat and energy related to soil science, not so much human activities.  In high heat with building soil sulfides, eelgrass will naturally "die off."  At times submerged vegetation holds organic matter that assists in benthic formation of sulfide.  When that happens, coastal bays may witness a sulfide/low oxygen event termed the blue crab jubilee.

Shellfish and Eelgrass

The things you see every day you take for granted, chances are large changes day to day are rare.  I think that is why a time series of photographs before and later have long captured our imagination.  We rarely have the opportunity to watch a certain shellfish habitat space over time – except perhaps for the reports of David Belding on Cape Cod.  That is not correct for the small boat fishers of Cape Cod or southern blue crabbers their livelihoods often depended upon long term habitat observations.  They watched the bottom almost every trip.  In clear cold water bottoms gave clues to fish and shellfish, sandy, shelly bottoms told of shellfish, seagrass patches scallops crabs and eels – rock kelp lobsters and pebbles – sand bottoms winter flounder.  Each bottom type contained its own story, if you wanted a certain type of fish or shellfish you looked for the bottom associated with it.  A sand (especially honey sand) could hold soft shell clams and good winter flounder spearing – eelgrass was good to spear eels hibernating, while soft smelly bottoms held little blue crabs.  These were often described as dead bottoms as opposed that were "live."  Eelgrass can and does provide a setting habitat for crab megalops, especially for the blue crab.  The blue crab survival often depends upon the shallows and submerged vegetation in which to hide if it remains cool.  This eelgrass habitat is, however, energy dependent and can change over time.  What could be an excellent eelgrass habitat for blue crabs one year could be very different a decade later (Hurricane Agnes, 1972).  What could be good for oysters usually increased habitat for the blue crab.  Much of this was how organic matter changed shallow marine soils.

A close look at the bottom could tell a lot, bay scallopers and looked for brittle weed or red weed for scallop habitat in bays while eelgrass in deeper areas.  A bottom littered with the shells of dead clams give clues to past events – like bones on a battlefield – once populated but now dead.  New bottom or "new sand" happened after strong storms especially on the Monomoy barrier beach complex off the coast of Chatham Mass.  These new cuts in beaches in time held great sets of shellfish and at other times buried the previous bottom beneath.  These changes in habitats were visible and locations known so fishers on Cape Cod noted them.  This is why in talking to Bill Bauknecht at Green Pond Tackle in Falmouth decades ago he had watched the Green Pond bottom change – from a sandy/shelly bottom to one that was muck filled and at times gave off the smell of sulfide.  Mr. Bauknecht was correct in his concerns for winter flounder as he had observed the bottom succeed and the winter flounder then disappear from them.  Between the 1950's and 1960's, the catch of bay scallops were harmed by the dense growth of eelgrass in many areas of Massachusetts.  It was then public policy to remove it, if possible.  Thick growths of eelgrass transitioned soils as it suffocated quahogs, and shellfishers, as well as state biologists, watched it happen.

Knowing the bottom is something that happened in the small hook and dredge fisheries as well.  At one time sloops rigged to drag dredges would look for certain bottom types, red weed or brittle weed in a dredge told of scallop grounds.  This submerged grass grew in very cold water and was often heavily set with scallops.  Finding it could mean bay scallops were close by they would look for clear or clean bottom to tow.  Even worked bottoms had distinctive characteristics, a smooth chain bight tended to flip shells exposing small crabs for winter flounder while keeping loose macro algae from covering them.  Dredging also tended to reverse or slow habitat succession and this included the formation of microbial mats under which sulfides rose in hot weather.  This is the often mentioned sulfide rotten egg smells in the historical literature.  Some quahog reports from the past century include references that dredging tended to improve sets.  We recognize these statements as now relating to habitat succession (See IMEP # 75, The Clam Soils, posted January 9, 2020, The Blue Crab ForumTM, Fishing, Eeling and Oystering thread) and marine soil chemistry.

The cultivation of marine soils or shell cleaning is also mentioned in the oyster historical literature.  In one Taunton River example (1887) an oyster planter harvested shellfish from a lease that it was thought not to be renewed and the more he dredged the more seed oysters were produced. What was likely happening was flipping burned shell held move set what Clyde MacKenzie later documented in a Bureau of Commercial Fisheries paper titled "Oyster Culture in Long Island Sound 1966-1969" by Clyde MacKenzie, Jr., U. S. Department of Fish and Wildlife – Interior Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory Milford, CT 06460 – published January 1970 – Commercial Fisheries review pgs. 27 to 40 includes this quote:

"In 1968, MacKenzie observed that black shells obtained from muddy bottoms could be planted immediately and, being free of fouling organisms, would catch about as many spat as clean dock-stored shells."

It is thought that this acid etched shell which sometimes shows multiple colors was "cleaned" by sulfuric acid.  In the small boat otter trawl fishery fishers noted the same impacts, cutting free eelgrass or moving leaves and other organic debris tended to keep bottoms "alive" and productive.  Without "harvest energy" as John Hammond once described it and removing energy, the habitat clocks would runout or succeed, into something different.  Rhode Island fishery managers noted the same observations in the soft shell clam fishery a century ago – mentioning a common belief that digging for adult market clams helped the population reseed into loose soil and grow.  This following quote is from the 1905 Rhode Island Report of the Commission of Inland Fisheries, pg. 105: (soft shell clams T. Visel)

"Owing to the great abundance of clams everywhere, the size attained was not very great.  The clams were so crowded together that they could not attain full size" and then "It is the common opinion of the clammers that digging over the clams stimulates growth.  The idea which they seem to have is that loosening of the earth (soil) above the clams is as good for them as it is for a hill of corn or potatoes."

Even in the early small boat hook fisheries, knowledge of the bottom type was important to fishing.  Here one aspect of reef fish consuming small shellfish and depositing shell fragments on the bottom provided important habitat clues.  In these fisheries, bait was valuable so its use measured.  Some of the first fish stations did not involve fishing but only the ability to land and gather bait species for fishing in distant waters.  A small lead weight with a hollow center in which fat or lard (occasionally even butter) was placed and sent over to sample the bottom, a lead with shell fragments especially pieces of the swimming bay scallop shell would signal the proximity of reef fish.  Baited hooks sometimes called frames then were sent down.  Anyone that has watched black fish take a mouthful of shellfish and spit out the shell pieces could understand why bottom shellfish fragments indicated a potential good spot to fish.  Today we have electronics to find the reefs and fish.  We have lost the observations of small boat fishers and important habitat knowledge often because of bottom disturbance policies.  Even the chain sweeps from boat moorings was enough at times to keep microbial mats and bacterial scum from covering marine soils "killing" them.  They helped keep the bottom alive, like raking leaves on land or breaking dense root thatch to allow oxygen into soil pores.  However, today these practices are discouraged or, in some cases, prohibited.

Some of the most productive habitat types need energy and fail from a lack of it.  That is why many bottom disturbance policies need a review – my view.  To not disturb the bottom also has at times negative habitat consequences, imagine telling someone in lawn care, don't rake the leaves or cut the grass?  Very soon, the previous habitat would now change.  The same occurs along the shore – energy is seen as something that is very negative, but in actual fact it is not, often the productivity of an area is dependent upon it.  Nature of course had provided the energy to reverse habitat succession over time.  These were often observed as great sets of shellfish.  Remove the energy and turn up the heat and different habitats occur – as older ones recede or bottoms "die" or hold little "life."  In these conditions, the eelgrass habitats turn against species it once helped, even the warmer species such as the blue crab (See "Individual and Combined Effects of Low Dissolved Oxygen and Low pH on Survival of Early Stage Larval Blue Crabs, Callinectes sapidus," Tomasetti et al. , 2018).

Removal of energy can also have system-wide dramatic consequences as experienced by the New Haven Oyster growers after break waters ringed the outer harbor.  Originally New Haven Harbor was shaped like a funnel and storms from the south, concentrated coastal energy where Long Wharf, the city's historic primarily shipping wharf, was built.  Long Wharf would become a focal point for the economic survival of the city and after a series of destructive storms New Haven residents (especially those involved in coastal trade) petitioned Congress for building the outer break waters.  (A series of storms often damaged Long Wharf and destroyed ships and cargoes - New Haven Harbor was a busy shallow water port in the 1870's and New Haven asked for federal help to protect the shipping – See Yale New Haven Teachers Institute for school lessons especially New Haven – Maritime History and Arts written by George Foote and Richard Silocka (Sound School) curriculum unit 79.03.02).  After they were built what oyster growers did not realize, is that strong storms rinsed silt from oyster shells and swept away sapropel, a marine compost.  Gale winds blew sand into dunes and City Point (Oyster Point) once was such a high energy habitat.  Storms also kept oyster shells on the surface and waves flipped them exposing surfaces for an oyster set – eliminate the energy and shells soon became covered with organic matter from land – primarily leaves (See IMEP #18, January 2014, Climate Change and the Oyster Fisheries of New Haven 1880-1920).  After the breakwaters were finished the damage from coastal storms subsided but the winds and waves that sustained sand dune formation and cleaned oyster shells ended.  Within a decade, oyster growers noticed the New Haven natural oyster beds sets declined and organic matter from rivers blanketed the oyster beds.  An industry practice called stirring dragged metal frames to "stir" the shells.  In the heat once productive seed oyster areas smelled of sulfur and oysters died (George McNeil comments to Tim Visel).  At the time factory pollution was blamed but productive oyster beds i.e. natural beds reproductive sets stopped.  The fishers of upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay are also experiencing the buildup of organic matter recently and its negative habitat consequences of sulfate reducing bacteria of sapropel – this build up is occurring north of the Conowingo Dam and it once swept over the dam blankets habitat with this organic compost.  (See EC #1: What About Sapropel and the Conowingo Dam, posted on September 29, 2014, The Blue Crab ForumTM).

In times of cold and increased energy sapropel is washed from coves and consumed by oxygen requiring bacteria.  However, take away the energy and turn up the heat and a compost, sapropel has a chance to form, killing seafood and changing the habitat.  Some of the most bacteria-rich areas are below eelgrass.  That is why eel spear fishers looked for some eelgrass noting this as still a "live bottom" (See IMEP #61A, posted on March 28, 2017 on The Blue Crab Forum™) and avoided dead bottoms those containing sapropel – a sulfide rich jelly like deposit).  It is this deposit that winter flounder fishers in Waterford, CT found in its coves in the early 1980's that concerned them.  At night once popular winter flounder fishing spot gave off sulfur smells.  Eelgrass, therefore, may become an indicator species for the accumulation of pore water sulfide in marine soils, and when this happens, it may become a very negative habitat type for fish and shellfish.         

Energy, Eelgrass and Oxygen Poor Habitats – The Marine Soils
The 1980's saw the fading of the negative climate pattern NAO – the North Atlantic Oscillation.  Here a pattern of temperature and energy changes the habitats of the western Atlantic seaboard, waves and currents from storms.  These climate patterns appear to be 100 years in duration.  Lobsters died off in Long Island Sound in 1998, but also in 1898 and from some reports also in the 1790's.  (In the warmer 1790's, Connecticut had even produced silkworm thread and planted thousands of Mulberry trees for this industry.  A section of Guilford, CT is still called Mulberry Point today).

As the NAO turned positive, a retired oyster grower John Hammond on Cape Cod kept notes and made observations of these changes to marine soils as temperature guided the species.  (His accounts of the NAO can be found in IMEP #40 "Habitat Discussions with John Hammond and Cape Cod Shellfisheries 1981-1983" posted November 24, 2014, The Blue Crab ForumTM and also IMEP #45 "Climate Change Habitat and Fisheries Mr. Hammond's Habitat History Lesson" posted February 5, 2015, The Blue Crab ForumTM).  He observed that under hot thick eelgrass shellfish suffocated in the 1970's.

Eelgrass during this period became highlighted as evidence of human negative influences as colder water species died off, the bay scallop, lobster, tautog, winter flounder as those that benefitted from warm water and few storms, the blue crab, black sea bass, oyster and striped bass soared.  All these species appear to respond directly to the cycles of the NAO, even it seems eelgrass.  Some of the first bay scallops studies point to this cyclic nature and even eelgrass as an indicator of habitat succession.  Although eelgrass was seen as a positive habitat type on open, oxygen-rich waters, in bays and coves, it was often reported as a negative habitat type in shallows and poorly flushed coves.  Eelgrass slowed water currents, and in doing so, it gathered organics.  When that happened in heat, it helped change marine soil chemistry.  It then helped the formation of sulfides and to some extent the purging of ammonia.

Nelson Marshall, in his early bay scallop studies, includes references to bay scallops about setting on algae and eelgrass.  In conversations while attending the University of Rhode Island during a Masters program (1980's), he mentioned to me that scallops set on a branched red algae and that reference is found on page 100 of his often quoted paper "Studies of the Niantic River, Connecticut with Special Reference to the Bay Scallop": 

"It was evident that the small branching algae, observed to be very abundant throughout the river were heavily laden with attached scallops.  In this connection, it is noteworthy that fishermen of the Niantic River refer to such algae as scallop grass."

It is thought that this corraline algae is Agardhiella subulata.  In the decades that followed, it appears that the Niantic scallopers were correct, worldwide research is now focusing on corraline algal metaboIites as influencing the settlement of many organisms including corals, the green sea urchin, queen scallops, limpets and chitons. I have never heard this before believing that eelgrass was the primary (and only setting) vegetation for bay scallop veligers.  But as the Niantic Bay (River) scallop fishery grew so did the level of energy along the coast.  In fact as the energy increased so did bay scallop catches, while eelgrass coverage declined.  This same energy cultivated thousands of acres of marine soils, preparing them for sets of clams, and later the "clean and green eelgrass" to move into them.  Nelson Marshall points to the Niantic Bay Scallop fishery as 1932 to 1934 for its start.  Storms can have dramatic impacts to shore habitats and major storm events perhaps a habitat transition signal.

Energy, The Niantic River and the Bay Scallop, A September 9, 1934 Storm Event

A strong tropical storm crossed Long Island and moved into Connecticut on September 9, 1934.    The center of the storm passed very near the Niantic Bay region (much like Hurricane Belle in 1976).  With strong southerly winds (gale force) driving it is thought any scallop seed deep into the river (Niantic) lagoon.  Additionally, as the intensity and number of storms increased from warm summers and cold winters, the harvest of bay scallops also increased without the presence of eelgrass.  It was largely from a changing climate that washed seed into bays from offshore areas.  As long as it was cold and the storms varied in strength between years, seed could mature and survive in cooler shallow waters.  By 1934, eelgrass had disappeared from much of the Atlantic Seaboard, decades of heat and few storms it is thought had changed marine soil characteristics in a habitat successional process out of man's action.  The soil had become compacted a thick root peat collected organics and suspected sulfuric acid attack on its roots and bacterial coatings on leaves in heat had weakened the plant allowing fungal infections to kill them.  (This is not unlike the sulfide build ups in compacted wet hot playing fields on land).  Niantic Bay (River) is a unique location to investigate the climate NAO.  The 1933-34 winter had been cold chilling seawater and then followed by a strong storm.  Storms are thought to have driven in scallop seed from deeper off shore areas in the outer bay and then into the Niantic River.  Scallops live and often prefer the shallows 25 to 50 feet offshore, not the shallows where they become easy prey.  The Niantic River scallop fishery increased as eelgrass coverage declined.  This happened after 1934.  As the number of storms increased so did also the bay scallop.  (See Rhode Island Scallop Fisheries of the 1950's).  The deep water scallop populations now increased.

From Nelson Marshall 1960 study, pg. 94:
"Scallops are abundant elsewhere in the estuary and do well in the deeper water, though restrictions against the towing of gear (scallop dredges) had made it difficult to fish much beyond the shallows."
In effect, the deeper waters were placed off limits to prime scallop habitats for the name "bay" really only speaks to the location were shallow harvesting methods could be used.  This in effect now limited the fishery to cooler winters and strong storms to cast in seed or pre-spawned adults living offshore into the shallows, therefore as long as it remained cool and occasional strong storms scallop fisheries in the shallow waters persisted.  Connecticut's historical bay scallop catches reflect the negative NAO – during this time of horrendous floods coastal storms and bitter cold winters bay scallop catches now increased.  In fact, the climate indicator about this catch relationship is strongest for the years 1955-56 which had the Connecticut commercial bay scallop landings peak in 1955 at 425,000 pounds.  (DEP July 1984) it was also reported that in the 1950s and 1960s the Poquonnock River in Groton alone produced 25 to 50 thousand bushels each year.  It was this period that Connecticut witnessed almost a continuous series of hurricanes – in 1955 on August 14 Hurricane Connie brought southerly winds and heavy rains, followed by Hurricane Diane with its devastating floods and high death toll only six days later (the damage from Hurricane Diane was so severe it created the public's support for the creation of the National Hurricane Information Center, which was established in 1956).  It was at this time Connecticut's bay scallop production soared, colder winters and strong storm seasons saw the highest scallop catches.  Massive marine soil cultivation now happened.  Eelgrass meadows were ripped up by these strong storms and immense eelgrass wrack was washed up in eastern CT (personal communication Ben Rathbun, Tim Visel).

Upon review, the connection between energy and temperature with bay scallops is quite strong.  In high heat bacteria leads to action large amounts of bacterial ammonia while bay scallops catches are at its lowest.  When the seawater is cold and seawater has bacterial nitrate in abundance the catches of bay scallops are higher.  Hot, thick eelgrass and few storms are very poor conditions for the bay scallop in shallow areas when they are subject to a public fishery.  Laws restricting catch methods to a hand held dip net and spotters meant any offshore scallops in cooler water were just no longer caught.  The Stonington offshore dredge fishing is an example of the 1930's and 1940's productive dredge fisheries for scallops.  (Rathbun, 1997).  The focus upon eelgrass and its relationship to bay scallop is connected but not contingent, bay scallops do not need eelgrass, but eelgrass needs the same storm and cooler temperatures to thrive.  Just as in the North Sea where eelgrass increases and decreases in similar cycles and shares a close habitat relationship to the green crab.  In 2012, I raised the question that both species are perhaps invasive following upon the suggestion of John "Clint" Hammond – that this eelgrass does not belong here.  (Letter to Nancy Murray Bureau of Natural Resources – Jan 08, 2013).  Mr. Hammond felt that north sea eelgrass seed pods had been brought over on the first ships – along with the green crab, which was a food species in Europe (and still is).  It is known that seaweed was used as packing and cushioning material on voyages and to keep bait species alive.  This is a feature of fisheries today (See Yarish et al., Multi-Component Evaluating to Minimize the Spread of Aquatic Invasive Seaweeds, Harmful Algal Bloom Microalgae and Invertebrates via The Live Bait Vector.  In Long Island Sound, 2009) the packaging of bait species in seaweed in an old industry practice.

Coralline algal remains are thought to be extremely old and in colder times a more dominant alkaline algal type.  In times of heat, eelgrass would tend to make soils acid by collecting organics, and if extreme heat, sulfides toxic to it.  Most eelgrass reports fail to mention this toxic sulfide soil connection – putting the rise and fall of eelgrass mostly as the result of human actions.  That view omits the natural habitat cycles that changes in energy and temperature that "nature" may cause naturally.

One report however stands above many others during this period and was compiled by Jamie M. P. Vaudrey of the Marine Sciences Department University of Connecticut (Avery Point Campus, Groton, CT) Sediment Characteristics – pgs. 24 to 26 has one of the best descriptions about the soil characteristics percent organics sulfides and anoxia impacts to eelgrass I have found.  It is one of the most complete reports that fairly represents the growth factors for eelgrass (see part I Review of the Seagrass Literature Relevant to Long Island Sound CT DEEP – EPA grants – UCONN FRS #542190, April 2008).  This report is noteworthy as it mentions the conditions of marine soil the importance of oxygen to eelgrass growths, and it also discusses sulfide as a plant toxicant.

Few eelgrass reports however mention the condition of soil health to eelgrass, or its ability to rapidly spread into recently cultivated soils.  Some aquaculture operations have noted that when marine soils are cultivated and soil pore spaces improved during harvest operations grass beds do better "altering sediment and water quality" (VIMS, Shallow Water Resource Use Conflicts Clam Aquaculture and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation, December 1999, pg. 22).

In the historical literature, energy is listed as a negative habitat feature to seafood but the reversal of habitat types is a natural process.  Thick eelgrass growth (and other submerged grasses) are only possible after storms (hurricanes) and eelgrass succession shows the same pattern as terrestrial grasses following forest fires.  It, in many cases after energy (or cultivation), occurs when eelgrass simply responds to better marine soil conditions.

Terrestrial turf has a similar climate cycle of forest fires and soil movement.  In times of heat and drought the grass surface due to charged ions becomes water repellant – if dry soil pores fill with dust, moisture now tends to run off (you see this sometimes while watering plants during a long dry spell) continued foot traffic now compacts soil pores and when rains does happen the soil tends to saturate and drain slowly – pools of water may form accelerating the formation of sulfide.  In terrestrial plant turf management this is the formation of the "black layer" the beginning of sapropel formation – it usually has high metal sulfides (usually iron – black) and bacteria now release hydrogen sulfide when oxygen is limiting.  The hydrogen sulfide if continuous will act to kill the grass (on salt meadows or coastal peat meadows a pool of water may form as root tissue dissolves from sulfide sulfuric acid attack).  These soils are termed "poorly drained" in heat or submerged now exhibit a black layer below the turf.  It is this black layer that a core plug of turf can show – turf can recover if the moisture subsides.  These black turf layers frequently show high sulfide levels.  If the drought and heat continue for extended periods, the chances of forest fires increase as sulfide can kill plants adding them to combustible fuels.

Storms can reset the soil conditions for inshore waters – and usually have a temperature link.  The change from cold to hot patterns shows the strongest storms and change the soil chemistry from acid to alkaline.  This also impacts submerged grasses and torn plants can leak low weight small chemical compounds called exudates.  On terrestrial grasses this bleeding is often referred to as a "cut grass smell."     
     
In time, other researchers have studied the biochemical aspects of cut grass settlement chemicals, the corraline species and maerl rhodolith beds, that when torn (as by a strong storm), release a chemical signal, perhaps identifying an alkaline habitat in which to set.  These algal species would need cold (sufficient oxygen) and quiet periods protected by barrier spits as the Niantic River illustrates.  It was much colder in which the Narragansett Bay deep water bay scallop beds flourished (1870's) strong storms were common when the heat of the 1890's happened fewer storms increased vegetation.  Submerged plant growths can change the chemistry of the soils in a massive habitat transition that saw eelgrass rise but bay scallop catches collapse (See IMEP #52, Narragansett Bay Deep Water Bay Scallop Habitats, posted July 27, 2015, The Blue Crab ForumTM). 

Eelgrass in the North Sea German Bight is accustomed to cold and during active energy patterns also does well, with large storms ripping cut beds while perhaps starting others re-cultivating marine soils compacted by the weight of water itself.  This aspect is very similar to forest fires starting habitat succession.  Soil compaction long studied for the terrestrial grass culture (athletic play fields and lawn care) is a large factor in submerged seagrasses and remains a much understudied area (marine soils and compost sapropel) today, my view Tim Visel.

What happened? – Lower Energy and Higher Temperatures – Eelgrass, Friend or Foe?

In the 1980's as the NAO positive phase raised water temperatures, low oxygen waters were recorded.  Nitrogen was seen to enhance oxygen depletion and in ways (algal growth) that limit light to eelgrass (which is true).  In cool waters with oxygen, blue crab megalops find a place to set.  In heat and low oxygen, these same habitats generate a jubilee.  So, eelgrass is at times a friend but at others a serious foe.  This is a feature of the NAO; while lobsters died off in CT after 1998, blue crabs then surged.  The cool water habitats of eelgrass were promoted but the sulfide aspects of hot eelgrass peat sulfate metabolism in heat "forgotten"?

It was however, a habitat type that could support new estuarine policy and positive glowing reports about eelgrass worth soon had public policy makers following with special acts, legislation and rules.  The agencies that often funded the eelgrass research were also the same ones that wrote legislation recommendations and then enforced the eelgrass regulations from the legislation it based upon its own eelgrass funded research – that is the problem.  This is when the habitat history of eelgrass soil science was omitted.

If Clark Stanley was alive today he would be blushing, one thing he lacked was a statutory requirement to purchase the snake oil products he made - for some eelgrass reports the bias of a cure to so many estuarine problems is something that "eelgrass" simply cannot keep.  Eelgrass is a fascinating marine plant, yes but it cannot save the planet, in fact in a warming low energy climate period it cannot save itself.  (Some key researchers who participated in the eelgrass effort are the same ones promoting "blue carbon" today – that should trigger the concern about possible public policy bias – it does for me).

For some fishers and people who don't fish at all the complete story of eelgrass it will be difficult to accept – I completely understand that as the cycle of eelgrass appears to be about a half century long.  The only way a complete habitat picture will be seen is a move away from short-term snapshot ecology (studies) the promotion of a certain habitat attribute associated with short periods of time – usually the full movie is a very different – and often contradictory. 

This is especially true with eelgrass as many have only seen the habitat picture of the last two decades – what is not seen the habitat picture of cold and hot periods over longer periods of time.  Coastal fishers did see this habitat movie but no one listened to them (my view) the fisheries history of the Niantic River is a case in point – the best bay scallop years in fact had no eelgrass at all but powerful storms.  These storms drove seed scallops far into shallow water and if it was not stranded or frozen supported "bay" scallop fisheries.  Bay scallops are a misnomer once associated where caught, the bays thus the recent name "bay scallop."  It really should be termed a "shore scallop" one that lives close to bays but needs strong storms to support bay fisheries.  Those happen when the seed of shore scallops are driven into the bays.  If cold enough (and enough nitrate nourished algal food holds out) they can live in them and support "bay" fisheries.  But we may learn that the best habitats for "bay" scallops are not in the bays at all.  That information is most likely in our fisheries literature and history.  This is especially true for the once famous Rhode Island deep water scallop fisheries of the 1870's.

The history is one aspect of this review, the human health factor is another – and I am now guided by some ethical principles long established in science community – that eelgrass growths may contain colonies of Vibrios, those gram negative bacteria are so harmful to the seafood we appreciate and even to us.  We should be careful as to how we observe and study eelgrass in extreme heat as they hold at times the Vibrio bacteria that are so dangerous to us as pathogens.  In hot low oxygen sapropel Vibrios thrive and The Sound School issued a warning about them several years ago (See EC 14-A, posted December 22, 2016, The Blue Crab ForumTM).

It is possible that colder water also ensures stronger storms (sea water is more dense) and these storms favor alkaline soils – helping the bay scallop and at times these species cross each other and appear that they need it.  But over longer time periods (high heat) eelgrass dominance is when bay scallop catches actually decline – in fact the highest coverage periods for eelgrass 1905 to 1918 is when New England's bay scallop catch was lowest.  There is often a lag of time when catches up as habitat types and species in them do not change instantly.

A century ago shellfishers on the eastern Atlantic seaboard tried to control the habitat successive characteristics of eelgrass that smothered shellfish and covered oyster beds.  They could see it and watched it happen.  They tried to kill it using cutters, scoops, drag chains, mowing machines and chemicals and even in Connecticut explosives.  The negative impacts of eelgrass were well documented in the historical shellfish literature they just did not get mentioned in recent reports.  That is not what research is all about – at least not what I have learned by this eelgrass case.

Did Eelgrass Suddenly Change?

No, eelgrass did not suddenly change its biology or cycle of abundance but the policies that governed it did.  Our regulatory response to bottom disturbance was connected to eelgrass health as a positive estuarine habitat type absent the information about sulfate reducing bacteria.

Shellfishers had noticed that soils that obtained good quahog sets (see The Great Narragansett Bay Quahog Sets, IMEP #50, posted February 26, 2015, The Blue Crab ForumTM) following severe storms or a series of storms was often followed by eelgrass.  Increased energy especially in cold temperatures (See Clyde Mackenzie's accounts of inlet width of Great South Bay reports the opening of Great South Bay (1938)) started what Clint (John) Hammond described as a "habitat clock" similar to terrestrial forest fires a process of natural habitat succession largely governed by energy and temperature.  These event(s) act to cultivate shallow water marine soils – similar to terrestrial soil cultivation.  It is the pore soil capillary action that is key to land farming, hard packed closed or collapsed pores in soils are not recognized generally as productive or suitable.  But the weight of sea water over time packs marine soils into hard bottoms described in nautical charts and those areas of less energy and organic matter described as "soft" or "sticky" bottoms.  It could be said that the colonial navigation charts were our first marine soil maps, and fishers soon recognized that a hollow lead weight with lard or butter dropped in shallow water yielded bits of shell evidence of fish habitats.  Some of the first charts included terms of "foul" or "grass" even at times "eelgrass" on them.

Storms could change depths and bottom substrates as some old charts have an anchor with a bar with a foul symbol, (a circle with lines) foul bottoms (soft organics most likely) did not hold anchors so these notations were important to these navigators.  Charts were updated, channels could change, barrier spits can open or close by the energy of nature itself.  What was recorded could change and the need of new charts became an expensive and valuable part of maritime commerce (still is).  The "new charts" is a powerful indicator that bottoms were not fixed or static.  The same could be said of shellfish charts, bottoms that were cultivated could in a few years yield heavy sets of shellfish, while those with little energy (cultivation) could slowly "die out."

As storm waves came to the shore, they helped shape which species could also be present.  Waves and currents (often during storm events) could change profiles, remove or cultivate soils or even wash them away.  As such, plant and animal habitats could also change, and after the cold and stormy 1870's eelgrass coverage reached a peak about 1905 to 1918.  The change for alkaline soils in cold and frequent washings of the 1870's great for the bay scallop for example in Narragansett Bay now failed and ended in the great heat a period 1880-1920 that John Hammond once urged me to study.  While oyster and softshell clam production would surge in Rhode Island during the great heat (also the rise of shore communities for those seeking escape from the killer heat waves then), the hard shell clam and bay scallops nearly disappeared (See IMEP #14, posted March 24, 2014, The Blue Crab ForumTM).  The catch of quahogs would collapse and then prices rose in Southern New England at this time.

The 1950's and 1960's saw bay scallop return in a period of cold and frequent storms that deposited "new sands" that in time supported quahog huge sets and again the sequence of habitat succession with marine submerged vegetation started again, including sea grasses – especially eelgrass.

Marine soils cultivated by numerous hurricanes, now held different species, oyster production dropped as quahog sets now increased and gave rise to a growing Rhode Island bullrake fishery  (See RI Quahog landing statistics for these increased sets after 1938).

The 1950's and 1960's also saw a tremendous rise in the recreational boating industry made popular by the development of the "outboard" motors making versatile boating available in a post-World War II boom.  Dredging of salt marsh channels (and often salt marsh removal) greatly alarmed the conservation movement and those at the US Fish and Wildlife Service in response to the demand for boat docks, marinas and moorings.  These had shared upriver sites but now those being limited moved into the marshes.  In Connecticut the southern route of the railroad in 1891 had eliminated dozens of wharfs, boat yards and boat building areas (see East River Crittenden Munger Shipyard Case Madison, CT), which left navigation interests little space in which to grow or now were very limited.  Marinas now looked at salt marshes and because they naturally filled in with organics, required maintenance dredging to remove sapropel – putrid rotting vegetation.  With the railroad limiting navigation access, it left those wishing to operate marinas little choice but to build them south of the tracks.

However, these areas had very valuable fish and shellfish habitats in them and some comments from shellfishers as dredging increased that after World War II seemed as the Army Corps of Engineers "had declared war on us" Nathan Walston comment T. Visel, Guilford Harbor Project East River, CT (see T. C. Visel early 1980's – East River Project, Journal of Shellfish Research).

In time to discourage dredging, it soon became a regulatory permit "nightmare" but clear and safe harbors were critical to the U.S. economy and coastal business and to the same inshore fishers that needed safe and reliable access to the sea.  Not all dredging (energy) is bad and it is often good to the economic and employment opportunities we value – such as soil cultivation on land.  But that aspect is rarely found into today's estuarine literature regarding dredging or its potential benefit to eelgrass – a bias of perspective mentioned to me by John Hammond who was once a conservation committee member on Cape Cod, who saw conservation becoming "extreme."

Soil cultivation under bay or cove bottoms would soon be lumped into bottom disturbance and a growing conservation policy which declared all bottom disturbance as bad (except for nature of course).  The hurricanes were very bad for those living along the coast but created the soil conditions for the great sets of shellfish.

The natural habitat succession of eelgrass is very complex, which contains biochemical and soil altering characteristics which was promoted as critical to fish and shellfish and to ensure good populations of eelgrass a conservation and regulatory approach.  The only problem is that the biology of the plant itself benefits from coastal soil disturbance (even dredging) eelgrass likes new sands it does well in periods of cold and strong storms.  When it forms patches its reef services to other organisms are good, it provides important habitat to crab species and fish (it should not however be considered at all beneficial to shellfish even to bay scallops - my view, Tim Visel) but at the end of its habitat succession and a warming climate becomes a toxic habitat once that creates sulfuric acid, aluminum releases and purges ammonia – all considered "bad." 

Unfortunately, eelgrass cannot save our planet, but from it we can learn how it helps rebuild the sulfur cycle that can destroy oxygen life including our seafood.  The truth of the matter is eelgrass and other sea grasses provide the seed banks for some of the most terrible bacteria disease – including HABs and even possibly MSX spores.  In a warming climate the sea grasses can become very negative for fish and shellfish and recently involved with the release of aluminum – a very toxic metal to young of the year striped bass.  Eelgrass unfortunately is no tonic for coastal ailments.  In the future, we may come to learn it as a disease incubator in a warming planet.

Eelgrass A Modern Day Miracle Plant?

If you went to high school in the 1960's chances are a chapter of science textbook had a section on the FDA or the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.  Many reasons for the legislation may have been given but most referenced are the once notorious snake oil salesman – individuals or business that traveled across the U.S. selling miracle portions or elixirs, small bottles of fluids made of secret formulas that promised to cure all sorts of illnesses or prevent disease.  In time of course most of the ingredients were found to have little or no medical value instead preyed upon those who needed hope or those who had fear or those that suffered a recent loss.

Labels of these portions were designed to grab visual or textual attention – phrases like Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root – Diuretic to Kidney and Mild Laxative" or Kidney/Liver and Bladder Cure Specific" were designed to provoke a response (after 1906 the word cure was replaced by the word remedy) long ago I collected bottles from the last century and these bottles that are some of the most interesting are those of Dr. Kilmer's.

One of the most famous "cure" bottles in this series is the one labeled "Dr. Kilmer's Ocean Weed" was to relieve or cure – "Neuralgia" numbness in arms or limbs, darting pains like rheumatism, vertigo, dizzy attacks, ringing in ears, disposed to nervous prostration apoplexy, shock or sudden death with a top line "Corrects, Regulates, Cures."  Most likely it was the alcohol portion that interested some purchasers.  Could these products such as Ocean Weed extract prove all these claims – no but they sold millions of bottles, some plant extracts did have medicinal properties, some purchasers did cite improvement others perhaps were desperate to try anything and some were killed by them.  One thing was certain the use of cards posters and billboards sought to provide an emotional response or as they said "strike a cord" then with potential customers.  We perhaps will never know if eelgrass is or was the ingredient in Dr. Kilmers Ocean Weed Remedy except for a poster showing a human heart next to small vessels close to shore in shallow water filled with weed and eelgrass was called a seaweed a century ago.

Selling the Concept – The Case of Ocean Weed

A century ago headlines or bill boards often had spectacular titles to generate, and provoke interest in this heart cure which were designed to attract attention to a crisis or problem – using visuals in this case a giant human heart (posters) to elicit a connection to the product.  Ocean Weed had a huge heart on the label of course this was not science – science does not take sides, it asks a question.  An experience or observation is not factual science until time or practicals by others (repeat testing) confirms its validity.  Historically, peer review is not reliable and subject to its own bias and back then not used to screen media accounts.  A century ago these cures were marketed with science testimonials from people purely paid to say good things about a product.  That science (testimonial) influence has crept up again – with grants to organizations to say good things, no matter how slight (my view) about eelgrass.  Other habitats – rock-reef, kelp – cobblestone or estuarine shell have significant habitat values – "ecosystem services" but they cannot be connected to nitrogen as a plant nutrient or bottom disturbance by boaters and therefore not chosen for numerous grant studies.  For example, a recent newspaper for instance had a headline titled "Eelgrass Could Save the Planet."

The article is strongly supportive of the reported eelgrass and seagrass ecosystems values and concepts to store carbon – the final result of the bacterial digestion of plant life – which is true and often termed "blue carbon".  The articles ask "so why are we letting the beds (eelgrass) die?  - again to provoke a response but what is missing from the article is this bacterial carbon sequestion is accomplished by bacteria that generate methane, the most dangerous of all greenhouse gases, that is not mentioned in the article?  It is the methanogens, incredibly slow consumers of plant tissue, that survive in a habitat (sulfide rich) with little or no oxygen and their process acts to accumulate carbon chains they cannot break/consume.  If we our dependent upon this process to save the planet – we are indeed in large trouble but fortunately for this sulfide blame nature kills more eelgrass than we ever could. 

Also missing from many eelgrass "research" articles is its environmental history – over time it damages or reversals positive habitat impacts as it helps create some of the most damaging habitat types – a sapropel a deposit of organic matter in heat/low oxygen conditions that purges ammonia and sulfides – a plant toxin below it.  In a warming climate eelgrass becomes an extremely negative habitat type that creates sulfuric acid and purges ammonia (research has confirmed this) or had the potential release aluminum ions highly toxic to fish into the water.  We do know that in heat eelgrass holds fish and shellfish disease cysts/spores and some of the most dangerous bacterial pathogens – vibrio bacteria live below the eelgrass meadows. Large segments of its environmental fisheries history is also missing from eelgrass studies, the aggressive and successive attributes of this flowering marine plant have been left out – a type of science (research) misconduct often termed "citation amnesia" the deliberate forgetting of reference material that does not support current estuarine policy.  For over a century, fishery reports have mentioned a blue-black mud as supporting little life although some projects sought to replant eelgrass in it.

At one time, the U. S. and Canada both funded projects to prevent spreading eelgrass monocultures, as its negative impacts to shellfish were well known and published (See The Trouble of Eelgrass, Sound School Publications List).  But those citations or discussions are missing from eelgrass papers/articles.  Not all eelgrass research is biased in fact some of the first and more recent research articles about it are quite good.  The trouble with eelgrass studies is the absence of successional history – at the end of its habitat cycle it helps produce toxic amounts of sulfide and ammonia, and fosters the buildup of sapropel – a carbon-rich, blue-black organic ooze that is now thought to be the incubation growth media for shellfish and fish disease.  The high pH (ammonia levels) appears to protect red and brown tide cysts, those cysts that have a tough outer "protein coat".  Much of the eelgrass research was grants to promote its connection to nitrogen loads (public policy formation) – exempting the process of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) ability to produce ammonia as part of the blue carbon process beneath seagrass. 

There is now a growing recognition of eelgrass connection to the sulfur cycle – first introduced to me by John Hammond on Cape Cod in 1981, and its ability to enhance negative sulfur cycle impacts to critical nursery habitats.  A growing collection of articles now shows sulfate reducing bacteria and Vibrio series lives in large masses under eelgrass.  The truth is eelgrass cannot save our planet, but its connection to all pollution – seafood declines is misleading and like the billboards of snake oil products – we need to see all the ingredients not just a picture of the bottle. The soil science of eelgrass needs to be included in eelgrass research.  My view –

I respond to all e-mails at [email protected].


Appendix #1

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
MARINE ADVISORY SERVICE
NATIONAL SEA GRANT PROGRAM COOPERATING

Mr. Charles Schroeder                   REPLY TO:   
Madison Shellfish Commission                                                              Marine Advisory Service   
790 Durham Road                  University of Connecticut
Madison, CT  06443                    Avery Point Groton,

December 5, 1978   

Dear Mr. Schroeder:

This letter is to describe our scallop seeding procedure and interest in further investigations on general scallop ecology within the Hammonasset River estuary.

Approximately 10,000 juvenile scallops (5-30 cm. diam.) were provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service - Milford Laboratory, courtesy Mr. Edwin Rhodes as a result of intensive aquaculture efforts on the species. The planting was conducted 5 December 78 in two locations of the Hammonasset River - 5,000 individual Juvenile scallops were broadcast at a site approximately 250 yards WSW of the bulkhead at Cedar Island Marina, and another 5,000 broadcast at a site on the northern bank of the Hammonasset River 50 yards W of the junction with the Indian River. Attempts were made to select hard bottom with evidence of eel grass stands adjacent to the release sites.  John Baker, Chief, Division of Aquaculture, Edwin Rhodes, N.M.F.S., Lance Stewart, UConn-Sea Grant Marine Advisory