Organization’s 2025 Annual Report puts spotlight on positive changes
In its 2025 Annual Report, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program (SBEP) has reported that the bay experienced a gain of 1,913 acres of seagrass between 2022 and 2024, “providing habitat for more than 70 million fish.”
That is a 19% uptick, the report points out.
The last, lingering red tide event offshore of Sarasota County began in late 2017, scientists believe, and it did not end until early 2019. Red tide blocks sunlight from reaching the bottoms of water bodies, which interferes with the growth of seagrass, researchers have explained.
Additionally, the SBEP report says, 20 acres of land surrounding Sarasota Bay have been enhanced by the “targeted removal of exotic plant species.”
As an August 2022 article written by Blue Kaufman for the Florida Conservation Voters website explains, “Since seagrass is so reliant on clean and clear water, they are considered indicator species. Essentially, if seagrass is able to grow, then water quality is generally good.”
A page in SBEP’s 2025 Annual Report includes a quote from Chris Anastasiou, chief water quality scientist and seagrass mapping lead for the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD): “We saw impressive gains in seagrass coverage between 2022 and 2024 in Sarasota Bay despite being an estuary with one of the most urbanized watersheds in the state of Florida. The SBEP and its partners play a key role in Sarasota Bay’s success as one of the healthiest estuaries on Florida’s Gulf Coast.”
Moreover, the report notes, more than 14,500 pounds of trash were removed from Sarasota Bay as a result of six clean-up events that the SBEP hosted last year. In fact, the report says, 2,100 hours of volunteer labor were recorded in 2025.
It also discusses the reopening of Midnight Pass by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall of 2024. (Helene recreated the inlet, but the pass soon closed. Since Milton’s strike on Siesta Key on Oct. 9, 2024, the pass has remained open.
Further, the report puts the proverbial spotlight on bay restoration initiatives: the installation of a living seawall within Longboat Key’s Bayfront Park and the upgrading of Bay Walk at City Island.
Yet another portion of the report provides highlights about the water quality in Sarasota Bay and the health of its ecosystem, using 2024 data.
‘Promising gains’
The section of the report devoted to the status of seagrass in the bay, points out, “Every bay segment saw an increase. Most of the gains — over 1,800 acres – occurred in Upper Sarasota Bay, primarily in areas where it was lost between 2018 and 2020. Palma Sola Bay added 40 acres. Lower Bay segments, including Roberts Bay, Little Sarasota, and Blackburn Bay, added 40 acres collectively.”
Yet, the report notes, “Despite these promising gains, total seagrass coverage remains 12% below the 2016 peak, when the Bay reached its highest recorded acreage. Nonetheless, long-term trends remain positive and show that since 1988, overall seagrass coverage in Sarasota Bay has increased by 36%.”
In contrast, research undertaken by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) found that Sarasota Bay lost about 5% of its seagrass between 2020 and 2022, based on its latest mapping in 2023. In 2020, that report said, Sarasota Bay had 10,540 acres of seagrass; in 2022, the figure dropped by 577 acres, to 9,962,.
Those 2023 findings reflected the third straight loss of seagrass in mapping undertaken since 2016, the SWFWMD report noted, adding that the presence of seagrass had reached a 15-year low. In fact, the report pointed out, in “Sarasota Bay Proper” — the segment of the entire Sarasota Bay designated with that name — had lost 486 acres of seagrass, which left Sarasota Bay Proper with the lowest amount of seagrass since 2006.
The SBEP 2025 Annual Report explains, “Seagrass is vital to our estuary in many ways. It provides essential habitat for fish, shrimp, crabs, manatees, and sea turtles. According to research from the Smithsonian Institution, a single acre of seagrass can support up to 40,000 fish, meaning the recent gains could support more than 75 million fish. Seagrasses also improve water quality, sequester carbon, and stabilize sediments. Seagrasses respond to changes in water quality and clarity.
“ ‘While direct impacts from channel dredging can cause losses, the vast majority of losses in Florida’s estuaries have been linked to impacts from degraded water quality,’” Dave Tomasko, the immediate past executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, is quoted in the new report. “ ‘As such, seagrass coverage is a sort of “canary in the coal mine,” and trends in the coverage of seagrass meadows have been used for decades as a holistic indicator of water quality conditions in areas such as Chesapeake Bay, Tampa Bay, Indian River Lagoon, and Sarasota Bay,’ ” Tomasko added in the report.
Tomasko often credited local government investments in new infrastructure as a major reason that seagrass has rebounded in Sarasota Bay. For example, late last year, the Sarasota County commissioners celebrated the completion of the conversion of the county’s largest wastewater treatment plant — the Bee Ridge Water Reclamation Facility on Lorraine Road — to Advanced Wastewater Status. That initiative is reducing the amount of nitrogen and other nutrients going into Sarasota Bay, county staff has pointed out. Nitrogen has been identified by researchers as the primary food for the red tide algae, Karenia brevis.
The SBEP report adds, “The latest seagrass maps provide evidence that the investments are paying off. Enhanced water clarity and reduced nitrogen levels have created favorable conditions for seagrass to regrow in areas once lost to degraded bay waters. It is worth noting that the 2024 seagrass mapping was conducted early in 2024, before Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Field assessments in March of 2025 confirmed that the gains were not significantly affected by storm-related disturbances.”