Conservationists patted each other on the back for the success. It was short-lived.
Two years later, more than half the grass was gone.
Much of Florida's seagrass would die post 2011. Extreme weather and storm runoff fed algae blooms that harmed seagrass beds along the Panhandle, Big Bend, southwest Florida, and along the east coast from Biscayne Bay to the northern Indian River Lagoon.
Here on the Space Co, drought, then extreme cold, set the stage for severe algae blooms that killed off 60% of the lagoon's seagrass, a consortium of 26 scientists concluded in 2015.
While runoff often delivers the nitrogen and phosphorus that trigger algae blooms, drought preceded the massive lagoon algae blooms that began in late 2010.