Dr. Peterson, Brad Furman and myself carried out our first round of Seagrass Net surveys for the summer. This is part of a worldwide effort to monitor and document threats to vital seagrass based ecosystems. We have been conducting surveys within Fire Island National Seashore on Long Island since 2007 and so far 2010 is off to a great start.
We departed from the National Park Service's Watch Hill maintenance facility in Patchogue a little after 9:00 am. Miraculously all six of the buoys that mark the study area were exactly as we left them last August. Without having to spend any time locating our transects we were able to jump right in and begin working. Although there wasn't as much Zostera present as we anticipated, it is still relatively early in the growing season, and we normally conduct these surveys later in the summer. It will be interesting to see how things change the season progresses. We were out of the water with plenty of time to grab a Boy's Red and some sweet potato fries at Brickhouse and finish processing all of our grass samples back at the lab.
- Jamie
