Aquatic Preserve Program

Seagrass communities are an integral part of St. Joseph Bay and an important natural resource. They provide nurseries, nutrition and shelter for a wide variety of commercial and recreational fish and invertebrate species, and their extensive root systems stabilize sediments on the bay bottom, helping to improve water quality and clarity, which helps keep the bay healthy. The health and status of many commercially and recreationally important seafood species such as shrimp, crabs, scallops, redfish, trout and mullet are directly proportional to the health and acreage of seagrass habitat.

Water quality monitoring plays a major role in the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserves' (BBSAP) understanding of natural and human impacts on coastal waters. Researchers use water quality data to document short- and long-term changes within the water column in an effort to quantify the spatial and temporal variability and trends. These are applied both seasonally and as a function of tidal forcing, of the selected abiotic parameters (e.g. establish baseline data) within BBSAP.