Public Outreach

Students during Eco Week at Crystal River Primary School learn songs about the Rock Star eelgrass. Here they are demonstrating their song to the crowd. Please note, the the library at the school even hosts a full under water theme with manatees painted on the wall and their very own eelgrass tank!

Marie, from Save Crystal River, works with students during the various activities of Eco Week. The dedicated volunteers make Eco Week so successful!

Carter from Sea & Shoreline LLC enjoys teaching the children all about eelgrass. The kids love the hands on activities and learning how to protect the waterways.

Residents of Citrus County came out to the Eelgrass Giveaway to plant eelgrass next to their sea walls.

META volunteers give back by helping to remove Lyngbya from the water ways. This stuff makes manatees sick! No one wants to go on tour when the manatees aren’t feeling well. Planting a lush underwater lawn of eelgrass keeps the manatees happy and healthy.

Shout out to Plantation on Crystal River for their environmentally responsible corporate decision to install power poles on their manatee tour boats. These power poles help to prevent damage to the eelgrass restoration project.

The best way to see the dramatic change in the restoration areas is to dive on in!

Public Outreach is an important part to maintain the restored areas of Kings Bay.

“The beautiful thing about learning is no one can take it away from you.” — B.B. King

As part of the Kings Bay Restoration Project, we have conducted public outreach in several various ways:

Eco Week

Crystal River Primary School has achieved the Green Flag Award from the National Wildlife Federation. This school is one of the very few in the state to achieve this award! As a focus for community engagement, these students and their teachers have enthusiastically embraced their ownership for the future of our resources. For one full week each year called Eco Week, we conduct show-and-tell, songs, and activities that allowed students to see what happens to our Outstanding Florida Waters.

During the 2016-2017 school year Save Crystal River partnered with Duke Energy to grow Rock Star eelgrass in every classroom at Crystal River Primary School. Over 1200 Rock Star plants were planted by 5th grade students on May 12th, 2017.  The grass is successfully growing in shallow water at Hunters Springs Park. You can view the Hunter Springs signs here.  In December 2017, Crystal River Primary again celebrated Eco Week! 600 students are growing Rock Star eelgrass in classrooms, that was planted in May of 2018 (check out all the fun they had!).  During the semester, all students will be investigating the benefits of healthy waterways and conducting numerous S.T.E.M. activities using some of the latest scientific technology ranging from water quality sensors to virtual reality videos of the project area. These students are the stewards of tomorrow and have an ongoing commitment to our Outstanding Florida Waterways.

You can be a rock star too! Download our K-5 Eelgrass Curriculum to start your journey!

Eelgrass Giveaway Event with Duke Energy

Duke Energy is continuing its support of clean coastal water. They have partnered with Save Crystal River on events that educate and engage the public. During these events, volunteers taught residents how to harvest, grow, and plant Rock Star eelgrass that was grown at the Duke Energy Mariculture Center.  This eelgrass was grown in mats at Duke Energy’s Crystal River Mariculture Center and transported to Kings Bay Park for the event. The Duke Maricultural Center has grown thousands of eelgrass plants for coastal residents to plant in the water of their “back yard”. During the Fall 2017 eelgrass giveaway event, about 500 plants and 1200 bareroot plants were given away to residents to plant in their underwater garden. This is extremely important to the success of the project as a whole as Sea & Shoreline LLC are not permitted to plant within 10 ft of the seawall. Therefore, this area is available for residents to plant and take part in this successful restoration effort.

META Volunteers Give Back

The Manatee Eco Tour Operators Association (META) understand both the ecological and the economic importance of restoring and maintaining the Kings Bay ecosystem. META volunteers joined Duke Energy, Save Crystal River, and volunteers from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to rake and remove detrital material from approved areas and plant large quantities of eelgrass provided by Duke Energy in several designated locations under the jurisdiction of the wildlife service. Tour operators are growing Rock Star eelgrass in aquariums at their dive shops in an effort to educate tourists as to the benefits of restoration. During guided river tours, they proudly highlight the newly restored areas. As their ongoing commitment to educating the public, META volunteers cleaned the planting site for Crystal River Primary School’s Eco Week planting event at Hunters Spring.

Friends with Fins Show

Save Crystal River was the subject of an episode of the YouTube show ‘Friends with Fins’. This education channel produces high quality marine science videos as well as a series of educational books. Friends with Fins produced a wonderful video on the work SCR has been doing with Gator Dredging and Sea & Shoreline. Jaclyn Friedlander, author and host of the show, also visited with students at Crystal River Primary where they sang their Rock Star Eel Grass song for her show. You can watch this educational and entertaining show on YouTube by searching for Construction Workers and Marine Biologists unite to Save Crystal River!

Tours of the Site

Local city and county officials, House and Senate elected officials, State Agencies, Local and State civic groups and associations toured the project site to understand the process and the benefits first hand. This best way to see the full impact is to dive in! Which is just what a group of graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Florida Soil and Water Science Department. They snorkeled through the site seeing the difference in restored areas, unrestored Lyngbya filled areas, and even saw for the first time a beautiful FL spring.

“Reason #309 why I love my major: Today, my class consisted of literally swimming with manatees. #SaveCrystalRiver” – Evan Robins, University of Florida undergraduate student

Check out the latest news on our Facebook Page! If you are interested in scheduling a tour, please contact Executive Director Dr. Michelle Sivilich at [email protected]

During Eco Week, students are excited for the many hands-on environmental activities that take place. They are the future, so we must teach them well.

These students are participating in their favorite portion of Eco Week: planting eelgrass at Hunter Springs! Check out all the fun they had this past May. 

During Eco Week, students have the opportunity to plant eelgrass into Crystal River along the banks of Hunter Springs. This is an ongoing partnership between Duke Energy and Save Crystal River. Check out the sign next time you are enjoying Hunter Springs.

Underwater gardening is a fun pass time for many residents who follow the Kings Bay Restoration Project. Here a cage protects eelgrass so it has time to take root.

Ocean Conservation and Marine Life Expert Jaclyn Friedlander visits Crystal River Florida to tour the construction site of the Kings Bay Restoration project and learn how to plant eelgrass. After an underwater planting adventure she shares her Friends with Fins books with the students at Crystal River Primary school.

Save Crystal River enjoys working with the community during our public outreach events.

Hunter Springs Kayak shop grows eelgrass in their shop to help spread public awareness.