Posted on December 17, 2025
BAY COUNTY, Fla. – A project to restore local bays and estuaries is moving into the next phase.
The Coastal Conservation Association of Florida has just completed Phase One of the St. Andrews Bay project.
They completed the $1 million job in September, installing close to 25,000 sediment tubes and more than 49,000 nursery-grown seagrass plants.
Phase Two will cost around $1 million, adding another 25,000 sediment tubes and an additional 49,000 nursery-grown seagrass plants.
The seagrass and sediment tubes play critical roles by stabilizing the bay floor, preventing erosion, and providing habitat for a wide range of marine species.
The biggest threat to the estuaries is boat propellers.
“Once the propeller cuts through the sediment and, you know, cuts through the roots, that seagrass will never fill that void back in. So by filling in this sediment, and we use local sediment from the area, the sediment goes in these cotton sediment tubes, and the roots are now able to grab on to something and grow across it and fill that back in. So it recovers much, much faster by doing it that way,” St. Andrews Estuary Project Frank Gidus said.
Both phases were funded by the state legislature. Phase Two should be completed by the end of this month.
