MARBLEHEAD – (Photos) This past summer, Jill Carr and others from the MA Division of Marine Fisheries conducted side scan mapping surveys of Salem Sound eelgrass meadows to assess and ground-truth the meadows at a higher resolution than aerial imaging. Preliminary results suggest that while some discrete eelgrass beds have seen complete loss over several decades, many eelgrass beds in Salem Sound are larger and more resilient than previously estimated.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 26th, 7:00 pm / Abbot Public Library, Lower Level Meeting Room
This is part of a larger study, funded by MassBays, to assess historic eelgrass trends throughout Salem Sound using photo-interpretation methods to delineate eelgrass beds in historic aerial photos and better describe meadow density. Relevant datasets are data mined for water quality, weather, physical disturbance and various biotic variables that may cause or contribute to the eelgrass trends observed in the mapping.
Jill Carr is a Fisheries Habitat Specialist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries lab in Gloucester,
MA. Her work involves monitoring and restoring subtidal habitats including eelgrass beds and artificial reefs. Jill has worked extensively in Salem Sound restoring grass under the HubLine mitigation project and is currently helping to plan another multi-year planting project.
The “Underwater in Salem Sound” Lecture Series is jointly sponsored by Salem Sound Coastwatch and the Abbot Public Library in Marblehead, MA. Three lectures were presented in 2017, at the Abbot Public Library, on the last Wednesday of the month, on January 25th, February 22nd, and April 26th, from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm. All the lectures are free and open to the public.
The Abbot Public Library is located at 235 Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MA 01945. For additional information, please call 781-631-1481 or visit www.abbotlibrary.org.
