About Common Eelgrass

Description

Zostera marina, eelgrass, is thin wide green aquatic plant which grows in shallow coastal water. Supposedly it is the most wide-ranging marine flowering plant in the Northern Hemisphere.

Eelgrass is edible and has also been used to smoke deer meat.

Habitat

Eelgrass grows in protected bays, inlets, and lagoons along the coast south of the Bering Strait. In the Alexander Archipelago eelgrass is mostly found in the bays and inlets of the outer coast, while absent from many of the inside waters. It's thought to be cause turbid effluent of the glaciers.