With the recreational bay scallop season approaching, Agnes Mittermayr, of The Center for Costal Studies, has some advice for scallopers. Mittermayr is director of Seagrass Net, a global seagrass monitoring organization. She says eelgrass, our native seagrass, is prime habitat for bay scallops and lots of other sea creatures.
But it takes a lot of time and effort to restore a damaged seagrass meadow. So it’s important to be gentle when harvesting scallops.
“Snorkel or walk though it, and then just pick them up as you go,” she said. “But dragging big heavy nets that rip up the ground, for the grass is not ideal. Because you rip up the roots.”
Because of their root systems, Mittermayr said seagrass beds are incredibly efficient at capturing carbon and storing it in the ground.
“We’ve recently learned that seagrasses are even more efficient at capturing carbon than the Amazon rainforest,” she said.
Seagrasses also protect shorelines from storms and erosion. And seagrass beds are important nursery grounds for small creatures, like snails and baby scallops that hide among the blades of grass.
