WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.000 Today we're looking at shallow water banks. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.610 I'm going to be looking at an area that was restored because of vessel groundings. 00:00:16.610 --> 00:00:22.710 We're trying to study the recovery rates of these groundings and develop new techniques 00:00:22.710 --> 00:00:25.120 to restore these groundings faster. 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:35.160 When a vessel grounds, it creates an excavation. 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:39.800 That destroys the seagrass and the community of the ecosystem. 00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:45.850 And this community takes about eight to 20 years to recover without an intervention. 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:48.360 So we want to do restoration. 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:53.760 All these groundings collide with each other and eventually they break apart the ecosystem 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:57.000 and we lose all the services that ecosystem provides. 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:04.870 It's important for many reasons. 00:01:04.870 --> 00:01:08.080 First of all, because of the services lost. 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:12.970 What I mean by services, I mean the service that the seagrass community gives to the environment, 00:01:12.970 --> 00:01:18.000 such as primary production or to serve as a nursery for animals to live in. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.570 And we bring back the services to the environment so there's more space for animals to grow, 00:01:23.570 --> 00:01:29.140 as a nursery for animals, so we're returning back to the ecosystem what was lost due to 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:30.140 human impact. 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:37.050 Here in Florida for example, our rate of boating activity and boating licenses is increasing 00:01:37.050 --> 00:01:38.050 drastically. 00:01:38.050 --> 00:01:42.640 And with that comes the impact on the resources. 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:53.240 We are trying to develop a technique to restore these sites faster and to try to return the 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:56.280 services to the ecosystem. 00:01:56.280 --> 00:02:00.460 What I mean by restore, what we did was restore the topography of the injury. 00:02:00.479 --> 00:02:06.390 We fill it up with calcium carbonate sediments, crushed, small particles. 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:12.000 We fill it all up almost to grade and then we cap them with a sediment tool, it's almost 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.540 like a big sock, about one meter long by 20 centimeters wide. 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:23.459 And then we cap the injury and plant it, and we introduce fertilizer via bird stakes. 00:02:23.459 --> 00:02:24.749 That's what we did today. 00:02:24.749 --> 00:02:32.569 We went to look at them and this grounding took about a year and a half to get restored. 00:02:32.569 --> 00:02:36.349 Without the restoration, it would have taken 20 years, or most likely it would have never 00:02:36.349 --> 00:02:40.079 been restored because it fragments the ecosystem. 00:02:40.079 --> 00:02:45.799 So you have a bank that's been hit several times by vessels, eventually those groundings 00:02:45.799 --> 00:02:49.000 collide with each other and it breaks the bank apart. 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.920 These banks, they formed thousands of years ago, or ten thousands of years ago or more. 00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:03.319 They used to be small bottom communities, and they started getting bigger and bigger, 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:07.590 grabbing sand particles, creating these little tiny islands and eventually they'll become 00:03:07.590 --> 00:03:08.460 mangrove islands. 00:03:11.140 --> 00:03:18.220 I would tell them to make sure that they know where they're going to, to familiarize themselves 00:03:18.230 --> 00:03:22.430 with the waters, be familiar with the boat that they're using, make sure they read the 00:03:22.430 --> 00:03:25.000 charts, and all the signs that are on the boat ramp. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:26.629 Make sure they know how to read the water. 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:28.930 If the water is shallow, stay away from it. 00:03:28.930 --> 00:03:32.800 If you see the water is brown, it's getting shallow. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:38.209 And just to be cautious, that the ecosystems are very precious environments. 00:03:38.209 --> 00:03:41.840 If we keep destroying them then they'll disappear.