Cosmetics from Eelgrass!

While innocently searching the web for an eelgrass (Zostera marina) reference I came across something totally new to me. Apparently, the Ren Ltd of London is selling skin care products using eelgrass extracts.

I'm not sure how they (or rather their suppliers!) gather the grass and do their extracting , but it interesting to see a modern use for a species that had so many historic uses. It is not uncommon to see rafts of grass floating on the waters surface during summer and fall. Possibly these are being gathered and processed...?

I will have to look into this more...

-ChrisP

2 Piles of…?

While diving along the north side of Fishers Island last week I photographed these two piles of what must be worm deposits (poop!) of some kind. Although we come across a lot of interesting things I haven’t seen this before.

I was swimming over the sandy flats checking on small seedlings when these caught my eye. There were a number of these piles, spread around the unvegetated bottom between grass patches, in various stages of settling and blending back into the surrounding sand.

Stay tuned for more on our work at Fishers last week. The weather was crappy, but we still got lots of work done!

-ChrisP

The Starfish Hoard…

I just wanted to pass along a couple cool pics of baby starfish in an eelgrass meadow north of Warner Island in Shinnecock Bay. We were out today to look for a temperature logger that we lost last year. Actually we didn’t lose it, but the story is too long to explain here.

Anyway, we still couldn’t find it even after using two GPS units and divers.

Back to the starfish…this is the same spot where we got some great shots of even smaller starfish a couple years ago. One of those pics was used in our newsletter under the title “A Star is Born”. See that issue here. Then and now it looks as if the starfish are wandering up on the blades of eelgrass to eat of the small blue mussels that have set there.

Definitely not one of my favorites, but yet another species that utilizes eelgrass!

-ChrisP

The Robins Island Plots Continue to do well…

As the water temps increase and vis plummets, regular monitoring visits to our test planting sites begin to show us which are the “good” sites and which are the “bad” sites. If we are lucky we have more good than bad, but during a typical year our “good” sites number less than the bad. If this was as easy as just throwing some plants in the bottom…everyone would be doing it!

Well, fortunately, the Robins Island plots seem to fit nicely, so far, in the “good” category. On July10th Kim and I visited the site to count shoots and take a bunch of pictures. We hadn’t counted during the June visit and I was interested to see how things have faired since May 29th counts.

As we expected, the flowers are mostly spent and many have detached. Kim didn’t count them as they were a mess. However, counts of the vegetative shoots showed an approximately 10% increase since May 29th. This is very good news since in my last post about this site I predicted a loss given that the flowers would soon detach. I should caution that Kim reported that counting was a little difficult, but the increase was consistent across the four plots.

The vis was pretty bad given the bloom in the water and the fact that it was low tide stirring up things a little. We have also had some fairly constant winds for the last few days that seem to have deposited silt and flock on the leaves, especially in the epiphyte fuzz. When kim bent over the tops of the plants as she counted them, the water became clouded with silt and flock.

This is the first time we have observed a fairly heavy coat of epiphytes on the older leaves giving the plants an ugly “fuzzy” look. The base of the plants and the new leaves looked great, however.

It was also interesting to note that there were decent numbers of small to medium sized mud snails in the plots, but most appeared to be concentrated on the bottom apparently eating the remains of dead lady crabs. It was definitely too warm for Lacuna snails and they will not be any help here until the fall, if and when they recruit as larvae. Seeing the fouling makes me want to import a large number of adult mud snails as they usually do a good job of cleaning things up. We still may try that this week.

We are not out of the woods yet with regard to this site or any other test plot site for that matter. It’s not until late August that we will know for sure whether the plots will persist. However, we have learned to many times that there no guarantees.....except in Long Island Sound!

Check back to see how this and other sites fair.

-ChrisP

Why I should really wear a hood!

The jellyfish are really, really, really bad this year! Last week I thought I could get away with not wearing a hood since it is getting so nice and warm, but as you can see, it was NOT a good idea.

We gathered a group of divers to collect flowers in Gardiners Bay as part of our restoration program. We did manage to find a site that wasn’t “Paved” with jellies, but it only takes one big one to do the damage.

We all had to deal with the stings around our mouths as the seemingly endless cloud of detached "tentacles" drifted by and gently wrapped around our regs. This I can handle and we all did that day.

It’s when I felt the hit on my neck and reached down for a handful of jellfish meat that I knew this was more than a gentle brush. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was uncomfortable…

Everyone had tingly lips for the rest of the day while I had the pleasure of a “red neck” with welts for three days…

Suffice to say that I learned my lesson...Ouch!

-ChrisP

Meadow found in Southold!

This past Friday (July 11th) while scouting for new eelgrass planting sites we found a natural meadow east of Cleaves Point in the north race between Shelter Island and Southold. We were on our way out to recon ongoing restoration sites, east of Shelter Island when I thought it might be interesting to see if there was any grass remaining near the Cleaves Point Condominiums.

Some years ago (maybe 8) Lorne Brousseau and I had swam through the meadow here and observed recreational clammers digging up large patches of grass. We even documented the damage using our video and still camera.

Unfortunately, there was/is no law against this and the damage continued unchecked for years until the meadow was decimated. The last time we were in at this site there was a very sparse patch of grass that was being slowly uprooted by knobbed whelks searching for chowders growing under the grass. This was the last nail in the coffin for this site.

This day the relatively clear water in combination with the bright sun allowed us to see the bottom pretty well and confirm that yes, the meadow was gone.

As we headed east along the bulkhead and past the filled in inlet to the boat basin at the abandoned oyster factory a group of large boulders caught my eye.

If there was any chance to plant grass in the area these would surely provide the protection it needs from man and the forces of nature alike. We approached the area slowly to avoid striking one of the large number of rocks that could be seen as dark patches under the surface. Eventually, we anchored south and east of the rocks and the combination of the SE wind and incoming tide pushed the boat within the rocks.

Kim was the first in the water snorkeling to get a feel for the area before I got on my SCUBA to get some shots of what looked like a great planting site from the surface. Within a minute of being in the water Kim said: “your not gonna believe it….there’s grass here!”

Although I was surprised I was also happy to see that my mental site selection model of where the grass SHOULD be and where it actually WAS matched! Obviously, there was no need to plant grass so we just spent the next half hour exploring the site and documenting it with photos.
This meadow runs east and west between the rock jetties that effectively define the boulder field. Depths range from about ~1m where the grass is almost right up on shore to about 2m seaward of the largest boulder near the edge of the channel.

Lacuna vincta were plentiful and apparently doing a good job of keeping the leaves clean. This is in stark contrast to the grass a short distance across the race at Hay Beach Point, Shelter Island, where there is a considerable epiphyte load.

The largest and healthiest looking parts of this “new” meadow were in the deeper water and in some areas it looked like meadows we see in the Sound except for the Codium growing here.

A look at the nautical chart hints at why this site may be thriving in addition to the fact that it is protected by the boulders. Given the very close proximity to the channel waters just off the deep edge drop down to nearly 60ft. There is no way of getting cooler or clearer water…

-ChrisP

Why I HATE spider crabs!

I know, I know “hate” is a strong word, but I can’t think of a more appropriate way to describe my invertebrate nemesis. Spider crabs may be responsible for more failed eelgrass plantings under my watch than any other cause. OK, maybe not ANY other cause as we did really mess up on the site selection thing in the 90’s, but it’s got to be up there…

Above is a picture of a spider crab (Libinia emarginata) eating one of our transplants at the Sag Harbor test plot site. It isn’t bad enough the we can never seem to get plants to survive in Sag Harbor (I’ll write about this soon), now we have crabs yanking out plants as fast as we can plant them! Maybe this has been the problem all along?

In this case I just happened upon the unsuspecting culprit as he casually munched on one of our shoots like he was eating a celery stick filled with peanut butter. He couldn’t have started more than a minute or two before I got in the water.

In the past we have witnessed spider crabs uprooting and dislodging transplants as they always seem to show up right after we plant. They must be attracted to the good smells coming from the disturbed sediments. In most cases they rip out a few shoots along one edge of the plot and back in amid the shelter of the new patch. I can hardly blame them as there is literally nothing else on the bottom at most of these sites (see my “Oasis Effect” comment).

The typical sign of crab damage is a shoot cut cleanly off at a 10-30% angle. This kind of damage is common and it does not seem to harm the plants too much if the trimming is minimal. Occasionally, we do see more crushing type wounds and these are likely caused by crabs as well.

I must say that it is almost (do I dare say it) cute when the young "decorator" spider crabs cut off SMALL pieces of shoot (thus the use of the term “cute”) to add to the forest on their back like a sniper customizing his ghillie suite to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

This time the damage was clearly catastrophic to the shoot and there was no chance of recovery. After I took a couple shots with the camera I grabbed the crab and decided that he was going to be sacrificed in the name of science to see how much he actually consumed.

Once back in the boat a fatal blow to the carapace allowed me to dig through the goo that is a crabs innards. I was somewhat surprised to find that most, if not all, of the eelgrass sections were still lined up at or near the crabs mouth parts.

Later that day, back at the lab, I photographed what came out of the crab and was surprised to find a small leaf tip. Since the shoot that he was eating when I found him was not missing any tips, this obviously came from another shoot. Through my frustration I had a warm feeling knowing that there was one less multiple offender in Peconic Bay.

-ChrisP

So much field work so little time…

The last two weeks have delivered nearly perfect weather for field work and we have definitely taken advantage of it! The tides were also cooperative allowing us to get in and out of the creek at almost any hour. As a result, I have spent more time in the boat and underwater than at my desk. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.

Over the next couple days I want to report on some of what we did. There is much to report, both good and bad, including monitoring at restoration sites, discovery of a new meadow at Fishers Island and other interesting observations.

-ChrisP

Planting Grass on Mars?

On June 5th we got in our first plantings of the “Seepage Project”. At this point we are one site down and two to go… I need to wait for the groundwater crew to better define the other two sites before we can plant them.

This site, on the east side of Jessup’s Neck, appears to be a major upwelling area as indicated by the dark staining of rust red on an otherwise tan sandy bottom. It literally looks like a moonscape with silver bubbles. Even when we dig down into the sand it shows evidence of reduced iron with a strong dark blue color.

It is getting late to transplant in the PE, but I am hoping that the temperature moderation of the groundwater will help to reduce the stress on the plants. The control plots outside the seepage will not have this benefit, if there is any.

Kim and I were able to plant out four 1m2 plots, two in the seepage and two outside of the seepage. Now its time for Brad and his crew to follow plant growth and survival. Since they plan to destructively sample (remove plants over the summer) we also planted a plot for us to follow over the coming months.

As part of this project we also deployed two temperature loggers under half cement blocks on the sediment surface. If there are any differences between the flow and no flow sites, these should pick it up.

While we were planting we witnessed something that we have never seen before, a clam spawning. Check back for a note and pictures describing this event.

-ChrisP

The Robins Island Plots Thrive…

In order to track the progress of our various test plantings throughout the region we typically schedule monitoring visits at least monthly throughout the growing season. Sometimes, especially during late summer when we can begin to lose plants to stress, it is useful to monitor more often, if possible.

Last week we made our second monitoring visit to the Robins Island test plots that looked so good in April. If you remember my last post on this site I mentioned that these plots were the best that I have ever seen in over 15 years of work in the Peconic Estuary. However, as they say in the investment commercials “past performance is no guarantee of future results” or some such thing.

Having said this, I could not have been happier with what we observed on May 29th. The day was perfect for monitoring. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze, not enough to produce a chop in the lee of the island, but just enough to keep the “noseeums” away.

As we approached the plots we could clearly see the dark circles against the tan of the surrounding sand. I was relieved that they were still there. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it there is literally nothing on the bottom at this site except for what we planted; No algae, no crabs, no whelks, no anything...just as we like it. In areas like this our plots normally experience the “oasis effect” (I think I just made that up) meaning that any crab, whelk or moonsnail in the area eventually arrives and rips or plows out the grass looking for food. For some reason, this does not happen here.

Given the water clarity I could almost count the shoots from the boat, but that would clearly not be accurate enough for our work. What was apparent from above was that the plots contained many flowers indicating that there will likely be a nice seed set this summer.

In my mind the flowers are a mixed blessing. On one hand they indicate how well the site is performing. On the other hand they also mean that the site will lose shoots after seeds are released some time mid summer.

For those who don’t know a certain number (about 10%) of vegetative shoots typically develop into reproductive shoots, set seed and die. This appears to be initiated some time during the winter or very early spring and no one really knows what causes an otherwise normal shoot to differentiate. What is clear however is that as a result of this process the shoot density after flowering always drops proportional to the amount of flowering.

As usual Steve handled the counting as he has the most skilled and experienced of us. When there are flowers we count them separately so we can account for the eventual loses and we also want to calculate flowering percentage.

Based on the numbers from April to May the plots have shown an 8% drop when the reproductive shoots are included. Mean flowering percentage was 15.8% which will translate into an approximately 30 shoot loss per plot by mid summer. However, we also expect additional lateral shoots to form in the coming weeks so this number COULD be overcome be increases in additional vegetative shoots.

We also checked on the Hog Neck Bay plots on the same day. They looked good, but not as good as Robins Island. Check back for an update on these plots soon.

-ChrisP