Zostera species or eelgrass, occurs as dense beds on intertidal and shallow subtidal mud and sand flats in sheltered shallow inlets, bays, estuaries and saline lagoons. The species found in South Africa is Zostera capensis, which occurs mostly along the east and southern coast of our country, with isolated patches near Cape town.

Worldwide rapid seagrass decline has been associated largely with human intervention on coastal processes in the form of industrialization, recreation, watershed runoff, agricultural land uses, dredge and fill operations, eutrophication, and unsustainable fishing practices. This has led to the creation of the World Seagrass Association which holds the World Seagrass Conference, a global network of scientists and coastal managers committed to research, protection and management of the world’s seagrasses.

Steady global loss of seagrass habitats results in loss of important ecological functions and values to human populations, including reduction in fisheries productivity, water quality, sediment stability, and coastal ecosystem biodiversity, environmentally sensitive seagrass areas, should be given priority in technical cooperation and financial aid for sustainable coastal development.

Seagrass meadows are of fundamental importance to the human planet. They exist on the coastal fringes of almost every continent on earth where they and their associated biodiversity supports fisheries productivity. These powerhouses of the sea create life in otherwise anoxic muddy environments where they stabilise sediments, filter vast quantities of nutrients and provide one of the most efficient oceanic stores of carbon on earth. The loss of seagrass from common human induced impacts such as poor water quality, coastal development and destructive fishing leads in turn to the loss of most of the fish and invertebrate populations that they support. To help stabilise our climate and to help ensure we have long-term food security we need to protect seagrasses and promote their renewal and recovery.

Seagrass meadows are important fish nurseries and key fishing grounds around the world. The loss of seagrass puts the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk and exposes many people to increasing levels of poverty. Seagrass loss should not be an option.

Eelgrass in estuaries has three main threats; local disturbance such as excessive bait collecting or harvesting, Z. capensis has been used in the past for pillow stuffing or in seafood stir-fries. Bad catchment management, erosion in the faster flowing waters upstream causes increase deposition on the eelgrass beds. Infrastructure maintenance in the estuary such as dredging can completely destroy the root system or increase deposition on the eelgrass beds.