Dredging

Habitats Affected:

Water column, shell bottom, SAV, wetlands, soft bottom, hard bottom

Common Sources:

Navigation channels, marinas, boat basins

Impacts:

• Dredging can directly remove SAV, shell bottom, wetlands, or shallow soft bottom features.
• Conversion of shallow water habitats to deep habitat results in loss of valuable nursery habitat and alters natural circulation patterns.
• Dredging can degrade SAV habitat, shell bottom, and hard bottom by increasing turbidity and sedimentation.
• Increased turbidity in the water column can deter successful recruitment of larvae, clog fish’s gills, reduce ability of visual foraging predators to catch prey, and make toxins in bottom sediments biologically available to fish.

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