Mid-year bay monitoring update shows bay grasses up in some areas, down in others

Scientists with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and other Bay Program partners have released a mid-year update on bay grass monitoring in the Chesapeake Bay.

Some highlights of the mid-year monitoring update include:

• Bay grass abundance is down in the lower Bay, likely due to hot weather last summer that may have killed off some eelgrass beds.
• Bay grasses are present in the mainstem James River for the first time since 1978.
• More bay grasses were recorded in many Choptank River tributaries, with many sources noting that widgeon grass has grown in places it has not appeared in years.
• Many areas around Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge have more bay grasses than in the past several years.

The full results of the Bay Program’s annual bay grass monitoring will be released next spring.

Visit VIMS’s website to learn more about bay grass monitoring.