CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. has successfully completed the transplantation of over 115,000 seagrass plants into a newly filled dredge hole north of the Julia Tuttle Causeway in Miami as part of the overall environmental mitigation requirements for the deepening and widening of Miami Harbor.
CSA was part of the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock LLC team that was awarded the prime contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The “deep dredge” project took two years to complete and is the first federal navigation project in the southeast built to accommodate post-Panamax vessels.
During August and September 2015, CSA staff systematically planted 14.3 acres of the 17-acre mitigation site using donor manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme) harvested from a nearby healthy seagrass community in Biscayne Bay.
CSA utilized proven methods developed and published by Dr. Mark Fonseca, a world-renowned marine ecologist and Vice President of Science at CSA.
Regular coordination with the GLDD team and federal and state agencies was necessary during the planning and implementation phases due to the location of the mitigation site (situated in a state Aquatic Preserve), the high-profile nature of the project, and low success rates associated with prior large-scale seagrass restoration projects.
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