Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Experiments to coax new eelgrass meadows out of the mud and water
have not been just in the name of science. One day in the 1990s, Jim
McGrath, a coastal engineer with the Port of Oakland, went out to the
former terminus of the Western Pacific Railroad to oversee some work.
While there, he looked out at the water and spotted the telltale green
blades of eelgrass. About a quarter-acre of the green fronds waved from
atop a sandy ridge separating the 190 acres of Middle Harbor and the
main harbor channel.
An avid windsurfer, McGrath had seen plenty of eelgrass habitat while
on his board. “You notice where the eelgrass grows because it hooks your
in,” he says. “I knew where most beds were in the Central Bay, and I knew
some of those conditions were right in our harbor.”
Scientists Katharyn Boyer and Sarah Hughes, from the Romberg Tiburon Center,
measure eelgrass extent on Keller Beach near Richmond. (Jude Stalker)
McGrath's find dovetailed nicely with other happenings at the port.
The port hoped to dredge the main shipping channel to accommodate
larger ships. The project would produce an estimated 14 million cubic
yards of sediment. Most would consist of fine sand, an ideal substrate for
eelgrass. “I thought that, after damaging habitat for dredging, wouldn't it
be cool to fill it with sediment for restoration purposes? Filling this area
back up to historic depths would be real restoration,” McGrath says.
Coastal charts from the 1890s show that Middle Harbor was originally
shallow enough to support eelgrass meadows, but it has since been deep-
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