Seagrass Protection and Restoration in St. Joseph Bay
St. Joseph Bay, located in Gulf County in the Panhandle, once contained extensive beds of seagrass and supported an abundant scallop fishery. Residents and visitors enjoyed extensive, pristine seagrass beds and clear bay waters. Summertime recreational scallop harvesting contributed greatly to the local economy. Seagrass beds in the bay are dominated by turtle grass which also provide food for abundant green sea turtles. The scallop fishery has become depleted in recent years, algal blooms are more frequent, and the acreage of seagrass beds has decreased. An overabundance of sea urchins (Lytechinus spp.) continues to destroy turtle grass beds through overgrazing. This project will jump start natural recovery of seagrass by installing exclosures over grazed areas to allow seagrasses to grow back without sea urchin grazing pressure. In addition, sea urchin roundups, public outreach events, will involve citizens to remove sea urchins from active grazing fronts. The animals will be released in deeper areas of the bay at a distance from grazed areas.
This project is a partnership between FWRI and the Central Panhandle Aquatic Preserves of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Staff from both agencies are maintaining the exclosures, monitoring the abundance of sea urchins quarterly, assessing sea grass abundance by in-water and mapping surveys, and measuring water quality monthly.
Roundup Events
Past Roundup Events
May 5, 2021
The Urchin Roundup in St Joseph Bay hosted on May 5, 2021, had a total of 41 volunteers participate. In total, 5,731 urchins were collected from threatened seagrass beds and relocated. Thanks to all our volunteers for making the event a success!
September 25, 2021
The second Urchin Roundup in St Joseph Bay was hosted on September 25 and had a total of 46 participants. Approximately 23,900 urchins were collected in 100 five-gallon buckets, averaging 239 urchins per bucket. All collected urchins were relocated away from an overly stressed seagrass bed in Southern St Joe Bay. A big thanks to all our hardworking volunteers for their extraordinary work!
June 18, 2022
For our June 18th roundup, we had 16 participants and 1 dog collect approximately 2,500 sea urchins from the designated seagrass bed. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of all our volunteers!
September 24, 2022
We’ve completed our final urchin roundup of the year! We had a total of 29 participants that collected 30 buckets of urchins, which is approximately 7,500 urchins! Shout-out to all our volunteers for making this event a success!
May 6, 2023
A total of 16 volunteers participated in the May 2023 urchin roundup, collecting 42 buckets of urchins. This translates to over 10,200 sea urchins collected and relocated away from threatened seagrass beds. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in this event – Thank you!
September 9, 2023
For our final urchin roundup, we had 25 volunteers collect a total of 1,500 urchins. We sincerely appreciate everybody who volunteered for any of our Urchin Roundup events!
Contact StJoeBayUrchins@MyFWC.com with any questions.