A System-Wide Effort to Restore Florida’s Indian River Lagoon

With $9.4 million from NOAA Fisheries' Office of Habitat Conservation , the Indian River Lagoon Council is leading an ambitious ecosystem-wide effort to restore east Florida's 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon.

The lagoon was once defined by expansive seagrass beds, abundant fish and wildlife, and clear water. Pollution, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms have since taken a heavy toll.

To jumpstart recovery, the Council and its partners are carrying out 15 restoration projects in key habitats across the estuary.

Over the next 2 years, the partners will:

• Outplant 21 million clams
• Restore 8,450 linear feet of shoreline
• Outplant 6,985 units of salt marsh grass
• Reconnect 2,125 acres of wetlands
• Outplant 2,300 mangroves
• Restore 45 acres of seagrass
• Restore 7 acres of oyster reefs
• Pilot test three small artificial coral reefs

" This project brings together scientists, managers, and community members across the entire lagoon to focus on the places and actions most likely to make a system-wide difference," said NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Erin McDevitt. "Just as important, it's helped build a stronger culture of collaboration and shared learning across the region."

Restoring the Indian River Lagoon will not only benefit fisheries and improve water quality, it will also support the local economy. A recent study found that the lagoon generates $28.3 billion in local economic activity each year. It also supports 128,400 jobs and $8.3 billion in wages annually.

NOAA funding helped the Council to assemble a broad partnership of restoration practitioners to tackle the complex problems facing the lagoon. They are sharing information and joining together to tackle shared challenges. The partnership is made up of individuals from:

• Five federal agencies
• Two state agencies
• Three local government entities
• Four academic institutions
• Six nonprofits
• 16 consultants
• 2,400-member volunteer force

"We're stronger working together than individually," says Indian River Lagoon Council Executive Director Duane De Freese. "And there's no question that without the NOAA funding, building that coalition simply wouldn't have happened."

Why Restoring the Indian River Lagoon Matters

The lagoon's geography makes it a hotspot for biodiversity. Cooler waters from the north mix with warmer waters from the south, bringing together more than 4,000 species of plants and animals from temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. The lagoon is not a single habitat but a tapestry of ecosystems: seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, salt marshes, oyster reefs, and tidal flats.

Longtime residents remember being able to jump out of their boats in shallow water and harvest clams by the bucketful. Catching 30- to 50-pound redfish and 10-pound spotted seatrout on fishing trips was common.

Unfortunately, the lagoon's shape also makes it more susceptible to environmental problems.

"The lagoon is narrow, shallow, and only has five restricted ocean access points," says De Freese. "It doesn't flush like most of America's estuaries with big tidal flows. So, what goes in the lagoon from the land often stays in the lagoon."

It is surrounded by 3.5 million people across seven counties and 38 cities and towns. Excess nutrients from agriculture, stormwater runoff, wastewater, and the septic systems from thousands of homes run off into the lagoon. This reduces water quality and leads to recurring algae blooms.

The Collapse of Seagrass

After years of degradation, the system reached a tipping point. Between 2011 and 2020, widespread harmful algae blooms killed an estimated 89 percent of the seagrass. Hundreds of manatees starved to death.

Shellfish, such as clams and oysters, suffered from overharvesting and changes in salinity levels. The lagoon receives large freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee as well as stormwater runoff from urban areas. Estuary species need a certain level of salt in the water to survive. If the salt level drops too low for an extended period due to excessive freshwater entering the system, they can die.

"It was a very dire situation," says McDevitt, remembering how the restoration community felt at the time. "At every meeting you went to, everyone thought the same thing: The lagoon is dying."

A Coordinated Effort to Restore the Lagoon

In response to the crisis, the Indian River Lagoon Council built a restoration coalition and developed a conservation management plan.

"The Indian River Lagoon is super complex to manage and restore because it's not just one system," said De Freese. "It's multiple systems, each with different stressors, so you have to approach restoration in a way that recognizes that complexity. That's why we asked NOAA to fund a mosaic of habitat restoration projects."

NOAA gave the Indian River Lagoon Council a Transformational Habitat Restoration award in 2023. After a period of planning, project partners have been:

• Planting seagrass and mangroves
• Building oyster reefs and living shorelines
• Reclaiming wetlands
• Deploying genetically resilient "super clams"

A Cautious But Real Sense of Hope

Project leaders avoid promising quick fixes to the lagoon's problems.

"We're still in the very early stages of recovery," said De Freese. "We lost more than 140,000 acres of seagrass, and we're not going to outplant our way out of that."

Some NOAA-funded projects are already complete, while others will finish in 2027. NOAA is providing additional funding to help the Council measure how the ecosystem responds to restoration over time. The Council and its partners are also developing additional restoration projects beyond those funded by NOAA.

Partners see restoration as a way to speed recovery where conditions are improving, while buying time for broader water-quality improvements. State and local officials increasingly recognize the economic value of Florida's marine resources. In Brevard County, officials offer homeowners up to $20,000 to upgrade septic systems to reduce sewage entering the lagoon. Local leaders are also working on solutions to stormwater runoff and other challenges.

But, after years of watching conditions deteriorate, some practitioners now describe a cautious but positive shift in momentum. They point to seagrass beginning to reappear in places where it had vanished and to degraded wetlands blossoming with greenery months after being reconnected. Out-planted clams are still growing 2 years after being placed in the wild, another positive sign.

In January 2026, University of Florida Professor Todd Osborne, who leads clam restoration, said he felt optimistic after seeing the lagoon's condition following a relatively calm 2025 hurricane season.

"Seagrasses are popping up. Fish are everywhere. It makes me feel like fixing the lagoon is very doable," said Osborne. "I believe that I'm going to live to see the lagoon in the glory that I remember from 25 years ago. And I'd like to see that happen again in my lifetime. Especially for my kids."