Climate change threatens Bay Area’s eel grass

When the tide rolls out along the shoreline of San Pablo Bay, plots of long, sinewy grass, known as eel grass, peak out from the water.

Researchers have long known these plots of grass as a favorite destination of all sorts of marine life – a place where Pacific herring lay their eggs or small smelt will hide from predators while eating even smaller fish. But just how many fish and creatures depend on eel grass is something of a mystery.

“We know that fish use these beds,” said Kathy Boyer, a scientist with the Estuary and Ocean Science Center who has studied eel grass for two decades. “But we don’t really know the details.”

In recent years, Boyer’s students have sought to find out more about the inhabitants of eel grass, which rings the entire San Francisco Bay, thriving in some areas