Jamaica Bay, the island-studded strip between the Rockaways and mainland Queens, used to be called Grass Bay. Archival maps document complaints about grass tangled in rudders. Eelgrass, Zostera marina, made possible the legendary footlong oysters and the ecological abundance that used to be New York’s harbor. The shoreline from the Bronx to the Rockaways and out into the Long Island Sound once swayed with eelgrass, which, since it moved from land to the ocean 100 million years ago, remains the only plant that flowers and roots underwater.
But in New York City, what were once sloping underwater meadows are now bare sand or dredged-out basins. In the 1930s, a mysterious epidemic called “the wasting disease” took out 90 percent of the eelgrass in the North Atlantic. Although the virus has dissipated, the plants are long gone. Now the city's eelgrass is forgotten. By most.
Seagrasses, a keystone coastal species in every continent but Antarctica, create oxygen, stabilize coastlines, and provide habitat for marine life. A flurry of bubbles fizz as the narrow leaves photosynthesize and release oxygen. They lower acidity so mollusks can produce shells. When it flourishes, this tidal ecosystem is a carbon sink, and it clears sediment from the water and draws heavy metals out of the sea floor. It also protects coasts from dramatic flooding.
Many restoration projects have failed because once an eelgrass population is decimated, it is difficult to reestablish. The plants need clean water, which New York City didn't have for decades. But in the last three years, all along the Eastern seaboard, scientists have begun consolidating their efforts in reestablishing eelgrass across state and county lines. Now, with cleaner water, there is renewed hope and more than a little urgency in restoring these valuable ecosystems in New York City, and scientists and restoration experts are realizing there may be power in numbers.