More than a dozen volunteers spent four hours in the rain Sunday, Oct. 11, at Tod's Point, gluing 25,000 eelgrass seeds to live clams and planting them in Long Island Sound.
The effort, organized by the Greenwich Shellfish Commission and the Conservation Commission, targets a marine plant that has been devastated across the state. More than 90% of Connecticut's eelgrass has died, according to Greenwich Free Press. If the seeds take root, organizers say bay scallops could eventually return to Greenwich waters.
The volunteers used a method called SEAS, or Seeds of Eelgrass Attached to Shellfish. They attached seeds to 2,500 live hard-shell clams with marine glue, then placed the clams on Greenwich shellfish beds in western Long Island Sound. As the clams burrow into the sea floor, they carry the seeds with them and plant them naturally.
The approach targets the whole ecosystem, not just one species. Marine biologist Dave Hudson, who collects eelgrass seeds for the nonprofit Save the Sound, explained the logic in an October 2025 Maine Public report: the clam filters the water, and the eelgrass grows up and provides habitat for other marine life. The two organisms work together.
Save the Sound provided the seeds and glue for the Greenwich planting. Norwalk commercial shellfisherman Norm Bloom donated the clams.
The method has a track record. A small eelgrass planting in Long Island's Peconic Bay started in 2018 had spread to a 150-by-150-foot patch by October 2025, Long Island Soundkeeper Bill Lucey told Maine Public. Save the Sound's broader 2025 restoration program enlisted 180 volunteers who glued 275,000 seeds onto 30,000 clams from September through November, according to the nonprofit's year-in-review report. The organization plans to monitor results using drone photography, satellite imagery and divers.
Joan Sagan and Allison Rugila organized the Greenwich event after previously hosting similar efforts in Clinton, Connecticut. They chose Tod's Point because of improved water clarity in Greenwich waters.
"Everyone loves Long Island Sound and everyone wants to do their part in restoring it," Sagan said.
Susie Baker, a retired marine biology teacher who spent 25 years at Greenwich High School and a founding member of the Greenwich Point Conservancy, called the planting a combined effort between the Shellfish Commission and Conservation Commission. Allison Rugila said she believes that with additional attempts and time, the eelgrass will create a self-sustaining meadow in Greenwich.
No follow-up planting date in Greenwich has been announced. Save the Sound has seed-gluing events scheduled Monday, Oct. 19, through Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Clinton.
