A second case of natural disappear- 

 ance occurred in the Chesapeake Bay. 

 Dr. Robert Orth (1975) of the Virginia 

 Institute of Marine Science recently re- 

 ported that a great influx of cow-nosed 

 rays was attracted by an increased num- 

 ber of clams in the eel grass meadows and 

 the rays uprooted many hectares of the 

 plant. Orth and associates (personal 

 communication) were interested in trans- 

 planting to restore the eelgrass beds. 



Camp et al. (1973) documented an 

 increase of Lytechinus , a sea urchin, 

 which invaded Thalassia beds in the 

 northeast Gulf of Mexico and damaged 

 many hectares of the plant. 



Mr. Mike Brim (personal communica- 

 tion) from Panama City related that a 

 hurricane went through the area Septem- 

 ber 1975 and caused the disappearance of 

 several seagrass beds. 



In all the above-mentioned cases, a 

 natural disturbance upset the growth of 

 indigenous seagrass beds, and managers 

 would like to restore them. The same 

 transplanting techniques would also be 

 appropriate for areas where human activ- 

 ity has impaired and reduced seagrass 

 growths. 



Previous Transplantation Work 



Seagrass transplantation techniques 

 have gradually developed over the last 

 30 yr. Addy (1947a) reported that eel- 

 grass was transplanted many times under 

 the auspices of the U.S. Biological Sur- 

 vey (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- 

 vice). Addy used both seeds and vegeta- 

 tive stocks of the Pacific coast eel- 

 grass, which were then transplanted in 

 Massachusetts. He transferred eelgrass 

 from Massachusetts to North Carolina, 

 presumably as a follow-up after the 

 wasting disease, and reported that no 

 notable achievements were made in these 

 plantings and many failed completely. 



Addy (1947b) transplanted eelgrass 

 seeds and vegetative material near Woods 

 Hole using the sod method (a shovelful 

 of substrate with plants intact) and re- 

 ported successful transplants. 



In 1960, as a follow-up from sev- 

 eral years of massive bay dredging 

 around St. Petersburg, I was asked to 

 transplant Thalassia and Halodul e in 

 Tampa Bay. I used sods of Halodule and 



Thalassia but had no success with 

 Thalassia , probably because of the ero- 

 sion of fine silts in the bay sediments. 

 The transplants of Halodule had moderate 

 success; about half became established 

 and showed some increase of ground 

 cover. 



In 1964 I began transplanting stud- 

 ies using eelgrass in Puget Sound. The 

 technique involved attaching a series of 

 plants, washed free of sediment, to an 

 iron bar; placing this bar in a trench 5 

 to 6 cm (2.0 to 2.4 inches) deep; and 

 covering it with surrounding sediment. 

 In 1966, Fuss and Kelly (1969) initiated 

 transplants of Thalassia and Halodule in 

 Florida and noted good rhizome growth on 

 a few transplants, but their methods did 

 not seem to promise extensive field 

 applications (see also Kelly et al . 

 1971). In more recent years, a number 

 of people have begun transplanting using 

 a variety of techniques (Table 1): 

 Eleuterius (1974), Phillips (1974), 

 Ranwell et al. (1974) in southern Eng- 

 land, Thorhaug (1974), and Van Breedveld 

 (1975). 



The plug method involves cores of 

 seagrass taken with a plastic sewer 

 pipe. I have used a 20-cm (7.9-inch) 

 diameter pipe, 90 cm (35.4 inches) long 

 with opposing holes through which iron 

 bars are placed for handles (Figure 1). 

 The holes are sealed with aquarium 

 cement. A wooden cap is placed on the 

 top with a hole in it and is sealed to 

 the pipe by aquarium cement. The pipe 

 is pushed down into the sediment, a cork 

 is placed in the cap, and the entire 

 device is pulled up with the plug in- 

 tact. The plug is transported to the 

 transplant site, the sediment plug 

 removed using another pipe, and the plug 

 placed in the hole. 



The anchoring methods I have used 

 include individual shoots with the rhi- 

 zome section affixed serially along 

 pipes and construction rods (Figure 2). 

 The wire mesh anchor method involves 

 bunches of shoots affixed to mesh by 

 rubber bands. 



A number of years ago Mr. Robert 

 Jones (personal communication), U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager 

 at Izembek Lagoon, Alaska, reported that 

 he had affixed individual leafy shoots 

 of eelgrass to nails (Figure 3) and 

 dumped them over the side of a boat at 



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