The Decline of Seagrass Meadows 
Eelgrass, Zostera marina, is a flowering, marine vascular plant that remains submerged all the time. This is quite a feat for vascular flowering plants, and only a few dozen species world wide are capable of growing completely submerged in a marine environment. Eelgrass creates and extremely important habitat, its upright structures and complex root system create a 3-D living space for many different types of animals. It is (or was) the dominant habitat forming SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation) throughout much of the coastal waters in the northeastern United States. Unfortunately, for various reasons, eelgrass meadows have seen drastic declines, and in many locations eelgrass only exists in a mosaic of small patches. This is extremely bad news as many of the important, and formerly important, commercial and recreational fisheries of the northeast US are dependent on Zostera at some part of their life cycle as a nursery and foraging ground. Some of the species are finfish like tautog, bluefish, fluke, winter flounder, porgies, while others are shellfish such as blue mussels, hard clams, oysters, bay scallops, and blue crabs. Many of the aforementioned species support or once supported vibrant fisheries. Many of those fisheries have collapsed, also for various reasons. However, is it possible there is a link between the crash of the fisheries, the decline of Zostera and the failure for recovery on both ends? Bay Scallop on Eelgrass 
Bay Scallops, Argopecten irradians , have developed a very close relationship with eelgrass, Zostera marina. As larvae, they are passively transported, and tend to settle in eelgrass meadows when the current is dampened by the 3D structure of the seagrass. This same 3D structure provides post-set juvenile scallops a spatial refuge from predation. Even as larger juveniles and adults, scallops are capable of, and have been shown to, actively select eelgrass habitats. Other species also use eelgrass 
A number of other species utilize eelgrass as a habitat. Included are grass shrimp, like the Palaemonetes pugio, other decapods such as blue crabs, bivalves such as hard clams, gastropods (snails), and numerous fish species, including winter flounder, tautog and cod.
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I am famous!
By JohnnyScallops, on September 20th, 2010
Well, not really, but I can dream right?
There as an article in the latest issue of the Suffolk Times ( a local east end newspaper) about hard clams in Hallock Bay.
Now, the basic summary of the article is that a group of local baymen had raised some money to plant seed hard clams in Hallock Bay, NY. If you have followed my blog at all, then the name Hallock Bay should sound familiar to you – its the location of one of my dissertation projects and a place I spend a lot of time in the water (and here, and here). Anyway, back to the article. The baymen released 85,000 8-month old notata clams – about the size of a thumbnail – into a portion of Hallock Bay. They selected a bottom with considerable cobble as their planting area in the hopes that the structure will protect the juveniles from their predators like whelks and crabs.
First, it is exciting to hear about local baymen – commercial fishermen who often get a bad rap when it comes to preserving marine species – trying to do something to help the bay. Some of the original scallop restoration efforts were started by baymen. But the most interesting and exciting part of this article for me was the 8th paragraph:
“The fishermen agreed that Hallocks Bay is a good spot for clamming, but they pointed to a broad swath of coastline, opposite the grounds they were seeding, that has been closed for two years — not because of poor water quality but because of a study Stony Brook University students are doing to see if they can simulate eelgrass bed habitats with synthetic eelgrass.”
That’s me! While the project isn’t exactly described right, and I am not mentioned by name, it is still quite exciting to see my work in the paper, regardless of how small or anonymous.
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About me  I am a marine biologist that is currently attending graduate school at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Marine Sciences Research Center, of Stony Brook University, New York. I am very interested in marine ecology and have been focusing my studies on bay scallop interactions with their habitats. I plan to investigate various anthropogenic impacts on bay scallop populations for my PhD dissertation. This blog will highlight the details of my graduate research, from bay scallop-eelgrass interactions as previously mentioned, to alternative habitats for scallops, such as Codium, to trophic cascades, and more. Enjoy! Artificial Seagrass Is a useful experimental tool to mimic natural seagrass while controlling many factors, such as density, canopy height, leaf number, which are usually confounding in natural eelgrass meadows.
Scallops seem to love this stuff!
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