Eel Grass Beds Rebound

on a crisp clear morning biologist bob hoffman stands on a dock in newport they he points out a couple of divers and an underwater meadows of long thin plans to shelter many species of patience is all that you and other mysterious very thin silver as they write in and they go out and basically vivid out of there the divers emerged from the water with bags of the stringy bright green plants that put them in a long drop which at richard mike curtis and colleagues combed through them or taking harvested and were bundling him in secrets that about ten to fifteen quartets an insidious part of that is going to be about one thousand bongo civil rights those laws already know this if someone says boaters think it's a nuisance but eelgrass is doing well here in the lower part of new port they so some of it's being transplanted to an acre of the upper bay the project will offset damage done by dredging in the estuary

bob hoffman climbs into a small boat and head through another nineteen sixty seven the day they often works for the national marine fisheries service he says biologist tried to plant eel grass in the upper bay twenty years ago but it didn't work and probably because of additional settlement that conditions are better now to get a look at some of the fish that live in the eelgrass hoffman and a colleague at a fifty foot long net to a nearby date besides the sting ray the snag lots of small silver fish called pop smelled a couple of kelp fish as served her and the long skinny guy with an extended snout and tiny tail

pipe finish this looks very much like a new aggressive way that's why they hang out in the new president's great camouflage them all the fish are six inches or less than either fish at the base of the food chain or juveniles hoffman collect some of them into jail including a spotted sandbags she holds briefly before it jumps out of his hand we are secured as body and then lots of spots all over and it's one that's really sought after by a recreational fisherman this in the courts and these guys take advantage of those bureaucrats beards because there are lots of small juvenile tension there that they can be on this night the hungry sandbags hoffman says eel grass beds are nurseries where young fish can shelter and grow big feeding on tiny organisms that live on and around the plant near hoffman a trio of mallards or nosing around the eelgrass and the sediment that collects around a body or garments or it's more types of critters that live in the muds which the first

vehicle hoffman says the fisheries service has been planting new grass at various places along the southern california coast for thirty years much of that shoreline now have boats in both thoughts on so there are opportunities that you just one insurer that has many places they can support your grass will support it hoffman also helps to reestablish eelgrass at the whole city the wetlands behind huntington beach he says for the new port project they'll have a pretty good idea of how successful they've been this time in about six months in newport they also set feel at nine point three kpcc