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Seagrass Awareness event all about protecting sealife

A celebration of sea life will take place Saturday along the shore of the Santa Rosa Sound, where flourishing seagrass beds help keep the waters clear and the fish population healthy.

Families are invited to come to the Seagrass Awareness Celebration and learn more about the vital waters surrounding the two-county area, and the variety of life forms in those waters.

Christina Verlinde, an organizer of the event, works with the University of Florida's IFAS Santa Rosa Sea Grant Extension.

"The seagrass beds appeared naturally many, many years ago," she said, "and they have been healthy, but now, for the last 10 years, I see algae on them from too many nutrients in the water and the human impact from boat props. People really don't know the impact they are having."

Verlinde is excited about the number of activities available to children at the event.

"They'll learn how to fish and learn kayak skills they can use the rest of their lives," she said.

There will be live marine life in touch tanks, a marine "critter caper" and seining to see what creatures live in the grass beds.

"While seining, you pull up live creatures right out of the seagrass bed. We usually see pipefish, gobies and pinfish, a relative of the sea horse. There are usually some little, green grass shrimp, and sometimes blue crabs," she said.

More than 50 volunteers from Navarre High students to members of the Florida Master Naturalists and the Pensacola Recreational Fishing Association will staff educational displays, providing information on boating safety as well as games, fishing, arts and crafts, and more, Verlinde said. Scot Mason of the Pensacola Recreational Fishing Association says male and female members of all ages will be there to teach children how to cast a line and fish.

"We're teaching them to get off the couch, learn about the environment and get away from the video games," he said. "A lot of parents come up and thank us for what we do. We'll also have a booth set up to pass out fliers about our club," Mason, a Pace resident, said.

"In the past 10 years, we have fought for fishing rights and taught the next generation to fish and get involved in the outdoors. We put on kids' fishing clinics during the year, teach them good stewardship, cleaning up where you go and keeping the environment clean," he said.

Rick and Molly O'Connor have had a display at the event for several years. Molly is a science teacher with the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center, and Rick is a marine biologist with the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust.

"It's important so people know and understand how to protect our fresh water turtles. Here in the Panhandle, people destroying nesting areas is not as bad a problem as some areas," Molly O'Connor said.

The O'Connors will bring along several live turtles that children can touch and hold.

"Kids keep returning to the table for that," she said. "Last year we kept seeing the same little faces over and over again."

Pensacola News Journal

Beth Ramirez de Arellano • News Journal correspondent March 21, 2010