Evaluation of Regulatory Protection of Seagrasses in the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area, Texas
In May 2006, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department enacted a regulation which prohibits the uprooting of seagrasses by propellers within the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area (RBSSA) located in Aransas and Corpus Christi Bays, Texas. Two complementary studies were implemented to evaluate the efficacy of the new regulation and to quantify the magnitude of propeller scarring. In the first study, 35 randomly-selected 100-m transects were established and the total number of propeller scars on each transect were recorded annually, with qualitative and quantitative information collected on...
