Changes in the coverage of seagrass populations are considered to be a key indicator
of the health and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. The overall extent of seagrass
meadows is declining worldwide, primarily due to human-induced disturbances. In
Tampa Bay, Florida, a nearly 35% loss of seagrass coverage occurred from the 1950s to
the 2000s. This decline was primarily due to the effects of human population growth. To
examine closely the continuing declining trend of this major indicator ofthe health of
coastal ecosystems, a systematic approach for extracting seagrass patches using EO-1
Hyperion hyperspectral imagery has been developed. In our previous work, a method
based on Locally Excitatory Globally Inhibitory Oscillator Networks (LEGION) was
developed and successfully applied to military object recognition using hyperspectral
and multispectral imagery. It showed great potential in target detection of hyperspectral
imagery. In this work, it is extend and applied in seagrass extraction.