Program on the Environment

Eelgrass species, such as the Washington native, Zostera marina, provide important benthic habitat for other marine life and serve as an indicator species of ecosystem health. Seagrass in the San Juan Islands has declined from historic levels, which may be attributed in part to recreational boating, which has seen especially increased traffic in the last five years. This trend heightens concerns of boating activity exacerbating eelgrass loss from anchor scour, propeller wash, pollution, and other factors. This ongoing investigation aims to use Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology, which operates on board a vessel, to relay temporal, spatial, and identification data to inform recommendations and assess the efficacy of current regulations, such as Voluntary No-Anchor Zones, across the San Juan Islands. To accomplish this task, I used platforms such as R, ArcGIS, and QGIS to analyze data gathered from AccessAIS.com. From that analysis of location and density of boating traffic, we found that a post-COVID boating peak in 2020 led to subsequent higher trends with a corresponding broadening of the traditionally accepted May-September boating season, raising concerns at both the tail end and beginning of eelgrass’s March-October growing season. Further, information gathered from AIS can provide analysis and/or recommendations to organizations such as Washington State Parks, county Marine Resource Committees, or the Northwest Straits Alliance on where to place Voluntary No-Anchor Zones and overnight mooring buoys, thereby limiting the harm of anchor scour caused by well-meaning recreational boaters.