Beginning in 1999, Virginia scientists scattered about 70 million eelgrass seeds, helping nearly 9,000 acres of seagrass return

For decades, the shallow coastal bays of Virginia’s Eastern Shore felt the effects of one of the Atlantic coast’s most significant losses of underwater vegetation. Areas that had once supported large eelgrass meadows became open stretches of seabed, changing the conditions for many species that relied on these habitats.

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