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Eelgrass clippings unsightly and detrimental to the environment.

Eelgrass skimming is a roadmap well laid.

The nonprofit group Save Crystal River (SCR) began environmental restoration in Kings Bay in 2015. It wasn’t a moment too soon because the bay and associated lagoons had reached the point of strangulation by the nasty algae Lyngbya. And nasty it is. Lyngbya thrives with the introduction of “nutrients,” essentially phosphorus, nitrogen, bio-available iron and dissolved organic matter.

These types of nutrients are not beneficial to the environment or natural in this sense. Lawn fertilization and septic tank seepage are major culprits allowing nutrients to seep into King’s Bay, a first magnitude spring complex of more than 70 springs pumping out in excess of 600 million gallons of fresh purified water daily from Florida’s aquifer. That’s a pleasant thought and a pleasant sight and one that SCR wanted to ensure would continue – in the right environment.

So, SCR got to work with its partner Sea & Shoreline and cleared more than 60 acres of slimy, sometimes smelly, Lyngbya from King’s Bay, and planted hundreds of thousands of oxygen-producing eelgrass plants, a natural aquatic vegetation that produces food for manatees and other sea life as well as oxygen for a healthy water environment. This long, thin-leafed plant also improves water quality through a filtering process. This isn’t a biology class, so we’ll stop there and move on.

Fast-forwarding to 2022, and voila! Success in King’s Bay. Such a success that now the issue is the abundance of eel grass clippings that have floated to the top of the water and inhibited sunlight from contributing to healthy growth below. How so, one might ask, does the eelgrass get clipped from it’s root structure and float to the top of the water, especially in the summer?

Unfortunately, the culprit is human based, when boat propellers clip the grass and anchors dig trenches, ripping the roots free from the seabed.

We are not here to scold boaters from enjoying the restoration of King’s Bay and the recreational opportunities that have been restored. But we are urging boaters to be sensitive to this restoration and raise the boat’s propeller, especially during low tides and use spud or mushroom anchors which don’t dredge up the eelgrasses and rootstock.

Meanwhile, the SCR group has been forward thinking, and has brought in an eelgrass collecting machine. Essentially a waterborne raking system, this process can remove up to a ton and a half of floating vegetation. These collected eelgrass clippings are turned into a nice healthy meal for manatees in captivity.

We feel that SCR and Sea & Shoreline have demonstrated over and over a plan to address the restoration of the aquatic environment in King’s Bay. We commend them. Tourism has benefited from their actions as well. Their foresight and the ability to identify workarounds have provided a blueprint for other similar projects, like the Homosassa River Restoration Project (HRRP) which is somewhat in its infancy in restoring the damages to the Homosassa River caused by the same environmental desperadoes.

Certainly, there is a financial cost for the continuing vacuuming and subsequent skimming of eelgrass from King’s Bay. But without these actions the environmental cost would be so high that the Nature Coast would suffer as recreational opportunities – and tourism – could have the potential to be washed away.