With a short week due to the holiday, Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve was able to get in a day of fieldwork by heading out to Keaton Beach to monitor the seagrass where the 2023 urchin mass grazing event took place. In February 2023, an urchin bloom was reported off the coast of Keaton Beach. Staff began monitoring the urchin front and the seagrass response with monthly surveys.

Big Bend kicked off its first day of seagrass surveys last week in Steinhatchee. With heavy rain threatening to brown out many of the sites, the team launched two boats and set out to sample the entire system in one day. Thanks to the help of Nature Coast Aquatic Preserve contractor Morgan Edwards, all 25 sites were completed. It was no easy task, as each site required four replicate quadrats, but the team got it done.

As the largest aquatic preserve in Florida, spanning nearly 1 million acres along our stunning Gulf Coast, this area is one of the most pristine and ecologically diverse marine habitats in the state. Here, our vast seagrass meadows play a critical role in supporting fish, sea turtles and other marine life while also helping to protect our coastline.