Many animals use eelgrass beds for nursery areas, others swim or walk among the leaves, or burrow in the sediments. Within eelgrass meadows, there is food and shelter for a wide variety of sea anemones, marine worms, snails, limpets, crabs, birds, and fish. Salmon Shelter Eelgrass shelters juvenile salmon and important salmon snacks such as harpacticoid copepods. The Dungeness crab often moves into eelgrass meadows to molt in the spring. Homes For Herring Eelgrass forms a hiding place for herring eggs and young.
Herring is a major food source for salmon, seabirds, seals, and other marine mammals.
The opalescent nudibranch swims among eelgrass blades feeding on invertebrates and their eggs. It sports iridescent plumes that are in fact gills. Grub for Gunnels Gunnels are often confused with eels. Their top fin is long and spiny. Gunnels swim in shallow water among eelgrass blades, feeding on crustaceans and mollusks.