Demand Stronger Protections for Seagrass on Cat Island, MS!

  • by: Johnny N.
  • recipient: Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources

The Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources is currently considering management measures that would place restrictions on a certain type of fishing around Cat Island in an effort to promote the conservation of submerged aquatic vegetation or "seagrass beds".

Seagrass beds serve an important primary ecological function by providing habitat for a tremendous number of species that live in or depend on seagrass habitats. Additionally, seagrasses are at the center of vast web of carbon and nutrient exchange spanning from the land all the way to coral reefs and into deep ocean trenches.

Extremely productive environments, seagrasses serve many environmental benefits. They also produce seeds that float and can drift all the way down into the deep ocean where they become an important source of food for other organisms. Fish also move seagrass nutrients around. Juvenile fish in mangrove forests or salt marshes often feed in seagrass, and large reef fish juveniles live in the seagrass before moving to the reef as adults. Other fish move from seagrass to offshore environments, forming a connection all the way from land to mangrove/salt marsh to seagrass to reef and beyond into the vast pelagic realm. Unfortunately, seagrass is often buried by sediment or nutrient runoff, ripped up to make navigation channels or docks, or drowned by climate change. Additionally, studies have indicated that the primary cause of shallow-water seagrass damage is from fishing vessels propellers and anchors.

Tell the Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources that their Notice of Intent to modify, change, and amend Title 22, Part 05, Chapter 04 to create an exclusion zone around Cat Island does nothing to protect sensitive seagrass beds on the island and that you oppose this regulatory change and it should be rejected.

Activities such as motoring through seagrass, anchoring, wading, using trolling motors, power poles and push poles in sensitive seagrass areas around Cat Island should be protected by the Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources around Cat Island, MS.

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