INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – The County Commission voted unanimously today to provide $9,000 in matching funds for a project known as RISSA – Rotary Initiative for Submerged Seagrass Awareness – intended to protect a lush underwater meadow on the Moorings Flats that is a critical fish nursery and ecological resource in the Indian River Lagoon.
Paul Dritenbas, an architect, fishing boat captain and president of Sunrise Rotary Club, presented the plan and asked for funding.
“The Moorings flats are one of the few places on earth where all seven types of seagrass grow,” he told commissioners. [Lagoon scientist] Grant Gilmore has determined this area is one of the most important breeding areas for sea trout in the entire lagoon.”
The Rotary initiative will place a circle of 24 buoys along with warning signs around the 440-acre grass beds, which provide food for manatees as well as habitat for hundreds of marine species.
Because seagrass needs sunlight to thrive, it grows in shallow water. If boaters are unaware of the depth beneath them, they can run aground or tear up the grass with their props, leaving scars that take 20 years to heal.
The buoys and signs will alert boaters to go slow and tilt props up.
Dritenbas is leading the project effort, which is backed by Sunrise Rotary and the Vero Beach Rotary Club. He has been working on RISSA for three years and hopes to place the buoys next spring.
Sunrise rotary has pledged $2,000 to the $18,500 project. Vero Beach Rotary plans to contribute $7,200, generated by proceeds of its annual Nautical Flea Market in November. Commissioners agreed today to match the rotary funds with county dollars.
A majority of the money – $12,000 will go to pay for 24 durable, long-lasting buoys that will be precisely positioned according to GPS coordinates.
Protecting the Moorings flats, long a favorite fishing spot for Vero anglers, became crucially important this year after all the seagrass north of the 17th Street causeway suddenly disappeared.
Scientists are unsure of the exact cause of the seagrass die-off, but say a host of environmental stressors, from fertilizer and pesticide residue that runs off lawns to changing weather patterns, have hit the lagoon hard in recent years.
The Moorings Flats appear to be protected from the mysterious devastation northward by the flushing action of seawater into and out of the Fort Pierce Inlet, a tidal cleansing that extends to the 17th Street bridge.
Dritenbas said the Rotary Clubs would assume responsibility for placing the buoys, maintaining them and making required reports to government agencies every three years.
The Vero Beach Rotary Nautical Flea Market will be held in Riverside Park on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17 and 18, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Club members say more than 60 venders have signed up so far, all dealing in marine-related goods.
