Coastal Services Center

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Touch Tank: Eelgrass (Zostera marina)

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Eelgrass (Zostera marina) provides food and habitat for many marine fish and invertebrates. Courtesy: NOAA Coastal Services Center

What type of habitat does eelgrass prefer?
Eelgrass grows in extensive meadows in intertidal and subtidal waters. This species prefers clear water, and depending on environmental conditions, can be found up to 30 meters deep.

Where can it be found in the coastal U.S.?
Eelgrass grows in a wide range of climates in the coastal United States, it can be found in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and as far North as the Arctic Circle.

What does eelgrass look like?
This plant has leaf blades that may grow up to 2 meters long and, being a perennial plant, it loses its leaves in the fall and over winters as rhizomes in the sediments.

Why is it an important benthic species?
Eelgrass meadows provide vital habitats for a wide range of fish and wildlife, including commercially valuable fish and shellfish. Eelgrass filters excess nutrients out of the water and helps prevent shoreline flooding and erosion by stabilizing sediments and buffering wave action.

Did you know…?
During the 1930s, a widespread infection known as "wasting disease" decimated Atlantic coast eelgrass populations. Eelgrass beds throughout the region never fully recovered.

Where can I find more information?

• Botany Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Seagrass Web site
• Chesapeake Bay Program's Bay Grasses Web site
• Virginia's Institute of Marine Science Bay Grasses Web site

Reference
Meñez, E.G., and R.C. Phillips. 1998. Seagrasses. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C.

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