In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the Mediterranean Coastal Environment, MEDCOAST 03, E. Özhan (Editor), 7-11 October 2003, Ravenna, Italy. Vol 2: 853-864. Transplanting Seagrasses in the Lagoon of Venice: Results and Perspectives Daniele Curiel (1) , Francesco Scarton (1) , Andrea Rismondo (1) , and Mara Marzocchi (2) (1) SELC, Via dell’Elettricità 5/d, 30174 Marghera, Italy. Tel. +39.041.5384817. Fax +39.041.5384757. E-mail: curiel@selc.it; scarton@selc.it; rismondo@selc.it (2) Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, Via Trieste 75, 35121 Padova, Italy. Tel +39.049.8276261; Fax +39.0498276262; E-mail: mara.marzocchi@unipd.it Abstract As part of a more comprehensive restoration and mitigation plan, a two-year pilot project of seagrass transplanting was initiated in April 1994 in the lagoon of Venice. Two different techniques (non-anchoring method and anchoring method) were tested in five stations with Cymodocea nodosa and five stations with Zostera marina. Survival rate, coverage, shoot density and biomass were measured at the ten sites for both methods. After two growing seasons, both transplanting methods showed good success. Nineteen of the 20 cells still had seagrass coverage and the coverage ranged, for C. nodosa, for both methods from 76 to 86% and for Z. marina from 70 to 74.4%. Compared to the initial densities the increase of the transplanting was, for C. nodosa, 15.1 times greater for sod method (681 ± 391 shoots m -2 ) and 42 times greater for rhizome method (563 ± 463 shoots m -2 ); for Z. marina it was 6.6 times greater for sod method (107.5 ± 50 shoots m -2 ) and 16.7 times greater for rhizome method (130.6 ± 60 shoots m -2 ). In comparison with the control site, for