Eelgrass Beds Receding From Chesapeake Bay Waters

WKTR 10 Feb 09;

Eelgrass beds in the Chesapeake Bay serve as a haven for crabs and other marine life but have been receding in recent years.

Marine scientists say they may never come back

In 2005, Tom Powers of Poquoson, Virginia, saw the 30-acre eelgrass bed he crabbed in disappear.

The bed at Hunt's Point and thousands of other acres of eelgrass vanished when water temperatures climbed beyond normal in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

Temperatures peaked temporarily between 2.5 and 3 degrees above normal during the summer of 2005.

Scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science fear that more eelgrass beds will disappear.

Intense efforts to replant eelgrass seedings and scatter eelgrass seed in Maryland waters have failed.