Recently, CPAWS NS and a team of volunteers completed numerous underwater transects to document the eelgrass beds at Owls Head Provincial Park. CPAWS NS has been undertaking scientific surveys at Owls Head all summer. Thank you to CPAWS NS for your work to protect this special marine ecosystem. Thank you also to Dr. Kristina Boerder and Simon Ryder-Burbidge for sharing their photos with us.
“The value generated by seagrass is among the highest of any habitat in the world,” according to expert Dr. Boris Worm. The ecosystem services provided by seagrass meadows (such as nursery habitat, spawning habitat, and carbon sequestration) are so valuable that they are valued “in excess of $20,000 per hectare, per year.”
Related Reading
Meet the super-plant from Nova Scotia’s shorelines: eelgrass by Mira Dietz Chiasson (The Coast)
Marine Ecosystems Q&A with marine biologist Dr. Kristina Boerder
How Golf Courses Would Jeopardize Important Marine Ecosystems
Seagrass beds off our coast could be some of the world’s heaviest and oldest organisms (Dr. Boris Worm on CBC Radio)