What we call the scavenger-based food web is the basis of the shrimp industry. Another important role of submerged grasses i s to provide habitat for gamefish, forage fish and crustaceans, Dunton says. The habitat issue is important not only for adult organisms but particularly for the larval forms of fish, shrimp and crabs. Seagrasses also provide a substrata for a lot of other organisms that are important as food sources to larval fish and crabs. Small algae or bacteria grow all over the surface of these blades and turn out to be very important food sources for these small developing organisms.
Seagrasses suffer from a variety of man-made and natural abuses.
While scientists say prop scarring is not the most serious coastwide threat to seagrasses, it has taken a toll on heavily traveled areas of the middle coast. Simply stated, propeller scarring of seagrass beds occurs when boats travel in water that is too shallow. The best way for boaters to avoid scarring seagrass beds is to know the water depth requirements of a boat's design. If seagrass is observed in the propwash, a boater obviously is running too shallow. Estes Flats is crisscrossed with prop scarring.