CSA International, Inc. (CSA) announces that it was recently retained by Maritime & Transport Services, Ltd. (MTS) to assist in providing ecological support services to Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) associated with the completion of a seagrass restoration project in Negril, Jamaica (Westmoreland) as part of NEPA’s Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Project – Increasing Resilience of Coastal Ecosystems.
CSA staff provided field oversight and guidance support to NEPA for the identification and demarcation of the proposed seagrass transplanting donor and recipient areas.
Additionally, CSA assisted NEPA in the transplanting of 692 planting units primarily consisting of shoalgrass (Halodule wrightii) with lesser manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme) into two individual recipient areas totaling approximately 1,000 square meters. The seagrass restoration activities occurred within a 2-km stretch of Long Bay in Negril, Hanover/Westmoreland. A deep water variation (water depths greater than 2 m) of the “modified shovel method,” which was initially developed by CSA staff in 2001 for the Port Manatee Seagrass Mitigation Project, was selected due to its proven track record of successful implementation and economical feasibility.
To date CSA staff has cumulatively transplanted over 181,000 individual planting units consisting of five different seagrass species from four genera utilizing the modified shovel method.
[mappress] Press Release, October 16, 2012