Interesting Facts About Eelgrass

 

• We depend upon vegetation to clean the air we breathe

• 9 to 10 times more efficient at cleaning the air than a same size boreal forest

• cleans the air and water pollution for a millennia if left undisturbed

• ​is a primary home, refuge and food for hundreds of different marine species and animals.

• Despite the fact that seagrass meadows are some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet, Seagrass meadows are estimated to be responsible for up to 20% of the global carbon sequestration in marine sediments, while covering less than 0.2% of the ocean surface.

• A hectare of seagrass absorbs 1.2 kilograms of nutrients per year, equivalent to the treated sewage from 200 people.

• Seagrass meadows sequester 33 grams of carbon per square metre per year, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from an automobile traveling 2,500 kilometres

• One square metre of seagrass can produce up to 10 litres of oxygen per day

• Over a billion people live within 50 km of a seagrass meadow.

• Millions of people obtain their protein from animals that live in seagrasses.  

• The estimated coverage of seagrasses globally is over 177,000 square kilometres.

• Some intertidal species of seagrasses can lose up to 50% per cent of their water content and still survive.   

• The anchor from one cruise boat can destroy an area of seagrass the size of a football field.

Local Facts about eelgrass in the K’ÓMOKS Estuary and British Columbia:
 

• 400 square kilometres of salt marsh and seagrass meadow are left in coastal B.C., an area just slightly larger than the city of Abbotsford that yet stores away as much carbon as B.C.'s entire forested share of the boreal ecozone, which covers nearly one-third of the province's total land base. And each year those neglected sea gardens lock away as much more carbon as 200,000 cars emit over that time.

• 95 percent of sea grass and bull kelp are gone from Campbell River to Naniamo.

• The K’ómoks Estuary supports the eelgrass communities however they have been disturbed and reduced due to impacts from industrial, residential and recreational activities.

• Project Watershed a local non-profit organization is working on restoration efforts in the K’ÓMOKS Estuary and has transplanted over 6000 metres squared with the help of local volunteers.

• The K’OMOKS estuary is listed as one of only ten Class 1 Estuaries in BC for health and function and is identified as one of the most productive estuaries on Vancouver Island. It is considered the estuary with the third greatest potential in BC for carbon sequestration, after the Fraser River and the Chemainus River estuaries (Campbell, 2010; Ryder et al., 2007).