The underwater grasses improve water quality in the Bay by trapping loose sediment in their roots and remove pollutants, such as excess nitrogen, from the water column. The beds are also home to spawning fish and crustaceans and waterfowl feed on the SAV throughout the year.

Once the SAV beds were so abundant that the mats of floating vegetation fouled propellers, stopping boats from navigating many of the Bay’s shallower stretches, but now the plants occupy only a fraction of the area they have in the past.

Federal and Maryland regulators are working to restore submersed aquatic vegetation populations in the Chesapeake by planting new stands of wild celery, redhead grass, coontail and other aquatic plants.

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