Eelgrass Facts
In some places around the Salish Sea you can find a beautiful brightly-colored green grass called eelgrass (Zostera marina) that lives in the intertidal and shallow subtidal zone. Like kelp, it provides a habitat for many organisms that use it for food and shelter. The health of the Salish Sea relies on not losing any of our eelgrass as this important habitat serves as a breeding ground and nursery for fishes and invertebrates.
DID YOU KNOW?
Eelgrass blades are thin and narrow, growing up from the sea floor toward the sun. In the greater Puget Sound, the optimal depth for eelgrass beds is between 0 and 2 meters deep.
Eelgrass is home to many organisms, such as Dungeness crabs, hooded nudibranchs, and fish such as juvenile Chinook salmon, Pacific herring, surf smelt, and many other species
Eelgrass is a carbon sink that makes up 10% of the ocean’s ability to store carbon. If you want to hear what photosynthesis sounds like underwater, a hydrophone can amplify the sound of eelgrass photosynthesizing as it absorbs greenhouse gases and emits oxygen, creating a rhythmic bubbling sound.
Eelgrass is highly susceptible to human-caused threats. Eelgrass can be damaged by pollutants, shading from docks and structures, anchors dropped on meadows, and more recently, eelgrass wasting disease which is caused by the pathogen Labyrinthula zosterae.
Photo by Eric Heupel (Creative Commons Flickr). Banner photo by Pat O’Hara.