Students Monitor Eelgrass Restoration Site
Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory
Working with scientists from Battelle, local high school students are studying the health and recovery of an eelgrass bed on the Port Townsend waterfront. This underwater habitat surrounds the Northwest Maritime Center's eelgrass friendly demonstration dock, designed with the goal of 
casting less shade on the plants growing below it. In May, 2004, when the renovation was completed, volunteers from the community, including some of these students, helped scientists plant eelgrass in places the old dock had shaded.
Students from Port Townsend High School and the Chimacum Pi program are now monitoring how well the new dock is working. They're measuring how much sunlight reaches the eelgrass below the dock at different times of the year, and working with volunteer diver Grant Ausk, who is helping photograph the replanted area to help students watch for signs of recovery. They're also monitoring other parts of this habitat-the temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen of the water, the kinds of plankton that move through the area from season to season, and even birds seen in the area. These data are helping the students and the Battelle scientists determine how well the eelgrass bed is functioning as a habitat.
Copper Rockfish, Photo by Heida Diefenderfer,
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| These charts represent data gathered by students in October, 2004, showing bottom contours and light measurements taken below the renovated dock. | |
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