3rd annual world seagrass day at charlie marshall elementary school

just when you thought the kids of today were spending too much time indoors you get a good story like this.

this marks the third year in reaching out to hundreds of fifth graders in aransas pass who are present and future stewards of the vast seagrass meadows of redfish bay. this year will also mark the first designation of a "seagrass stewardship school".

this year the fifth graders will be asked to draft a resolution that further promotes the importance of seagrasses in redfish bay. this resolution will actually request that aransas pass be named the "seagrass capitol of the texas gulf coast" and that effort will start with a presentation to the aransas pass city council. once approved the designation will be sent to represenative todd hunter for state designation.

this seagrass steward school designation will also allow for seagrass outreach to grow as year to year another coastal school will earn the SSS banner to proudly hang in their respective community. plans for reaching out to an elementary school in port isabel in the south bay area is planned for next year. also on the radar screen will be a campus on galveston island to join the network of seagrass savvy students.

i was thoroughly impressed with the way these children were prepared to answer questions about their coastal environment and it really does give one hope that the fragility of our seagrasses will be recognized and protected by the next generation.

there were 6 stations of study for the students throughout the day that included:

the Forever Green Project
identification of five major seagrasses
marsh planting project in galveston bay
use of robotic technology in ocean and space
nature conservancy multi-million dollar mitigation project around shamrock island
fresh water inflows and the impact on whooping cranes and the food chain

here is a shot of jennifer in the gym at her station talking about the state scientific area and seagrasses and the many other factors that threaten the health of the bay.