Project Update: Restoration Forth December 2024
Restoration Forth aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oysters into the Firth of Forth, to create a healthier coastline for people and nature. Find out more about the project here. We’ve reached 30,000 oysters! October was a busy month for the Restoration Forth oyster team. We had an absolutely amazing number of volunteers dedicate over 900 hours of their time this autumn to help us get the last 10,700 oysters through the biosecurity process, stringed so they were ready for monitoring, and then safely deployed in their new home. This brings our total oysters restored to the Firth of Forth to 30,638, exceeding our 30,000 target! We really can’t thank everyone enough who joined us over the last year to make this possible, it really could not have been achieved without all your hard work. In August, the Heriot-Watt University team were also out monitoring the oysters that were deployed in the spring. We are very pleased to share with you that there was an incredible 85% survival rate of the oysters monitored! This survival rate is such a great start for these oysters, we can only hope that monitoring continues to show them doing well in their new home. Seagrass processing completed In summer 2024, the seagrass team collected reproductive seagrass shoots in Orkney, Inverness, and Burntisland. With the help of over 150 volunteers, all seeds have now been separated from the seagrass material, ahead of planting in March 2025. Eleri and Lyle delivered the seagrass seeds to the Project Seagrass nursery, where they will be stored over the winter. Thank you to all our volunteers that have helped process seagrass material over the past couple of weeks. Understanding Scotland’s Seagrass Survey You are invited to participate in a short, online survey focussed on better understanding Scottish seagrass ecosystems. Local knowledge is invaluable in understanding this habitat, the challenges it faces and its impact on communities connected to it. The survey aims to explore: The location and status of local meadows Possible, localised reasons for decline Community perspectives, including; concerns, barriers and needs Responses will identify how best to support coastal communities in seagrass conservation, ensuring local voices play a central role in shaping future strategies by those working in this field. Find out more and access the survey here. (Scots Gaelic speakers can access a translated version using the drop-down box on the survey). We hope to reach communities across Scotland’s coastline, a big task! As such, sharing in your networks is greatly appreciated. The higher the participation, the stronger an impact this research can have. Any questions please contact katy@projectseagrass.org Citizen Science Update Thank you so much to those of you who submitted survey data for our oyster citizen science. We have collated all the results that were submitted up until September, and a summary of those results can be found here. An amazing 130 surveys were submitted altogether across Fife, Edinburgh and East Lothian! This data is incredibly useful in conjunction with other site suitability assessments to help identify future locations for oyster restoration. Outcome of the Nature of Scotland Awards! We won! Restoration Forth are delighted to have won the Coast and Waters award at this years RSPB Nature of Scotland Awards. Thank you so much to all who have helped make this project a success!
End of year reflections from our 2024-25 interns
In September 2024, Project Segrass welcomed Finn, Grace, and Heather as our interns for the 2024-25 academic year. Finn and Heather have joined us as interns from the University of St Andrew’s and Grace has joined us from Swansea University. In this interview Finn, Grace, and Heather share their experiences and highlights from their first three months as interns with Project Seagrass. What have you been up to during the first three months as interns with Project Seagrass? Heather: My time at Project Seagrass has been spent on a really diverse set of tasks so far, ranging from practical fieldwork out in North Wales, to desk jobs back at HQ analysing data or building equipment. One of my favourite jobs so far has been processing the seeds harvested in the summer. This task was based in the warehouse at HQ and involved separating the seeds from their protective seagrass sheaths using a water-tower. Apart from being a very satisfying job, doing this also allowed me to spend time looking at the infauna living among the vegetation and also to see, first-hand, the huge natural variation present in the seeds we are working with. In the end, we helped process over 1,000,000 seeds like this in the space of one month. Grace: Since starting I have assisted various projects within Project Seagrass, getting to know the team and building my knowledge base. Some of the major parts were aiding Isle of Wight and West Wales monitoring and mapping fieldworks, and processing seagrass seeds at HQ, as well as breaking down fieldwork data to analyse the results. In this short time I feel I have developed my confidence in field data collection and analysis, and am beginning to understand the precarious status of seagrass meadows in the UK. Finn: I have done so many different things since starting my internship with Project Seagrass – helping out with seed processing, building fieldwork equipment, visiting the nursery to help with monitoring the seagrass growing there, taking part in engagement events, and completing a review of the seagrass microbiome as well as various other tasks at HQ. A big part of my internship has also been going on fieldwork to the Isle of Wight every month to monitor restoration plots of seeds and transplants planted in the spring. What have been your highlights so far? Heather: My highlight so far was the sunny afternoon I spent surveying the seabed of the Cymyryn Strait by kayak. We found a really dense, healthy seagrass meadow there with all three British seagrass species present – it was also the first time I had ever seen Ruppia! Grace: My standout experience at the moment has to have been going on fieldwork in South and West Wales. Participating in mapping new sites for potential seagrass restoration is very satisfying, especially when I can plot out our GPS tracks on a map afterwards, and have a nice little record of where we’ve been. I’ve also enjoyed developing my programming knowledge with real data to make useful and interpretable figures. Finn: My highlight so far has definitely been going out on fieldwork and seeing my first seagrass meadow in the UK!! It was awesome to see the work Project Seagrass has done paying off and being able to see seagrass seedlings and transplants still surviving and growing. As well as the seagrass itself, I have seen some cool animals living within the seagrass. It can be a muddy, wet, and cold job but despite that fieldwork is still my favourite part of my internship. What are you looking forward to in 2025? Heather: At the moment, I am working towards setting up a controlled tank here, in HQ, in anticipation of the New Year when I will be beginning my undergraduate project. For this, I will be looking at the seeds we have processed in more detail, aiming to quantify their natural physical variation as well as determine if there are any links between this and the seeds’ ability to produce successful young plants. At the moment, this subject is not well resolved in the literature and so it will be great to push this knowledge boundary, even a little, and have the chance to continue working with the seeds I have already put so much energy into caring for. Grace: Moving into 2025, I’m looking forward to starting and linking together some smaller projects surrounding site characteristics. These include combining the physical parameters measured in different fieldworks at each site with background information to assess their suitability for seagrass restoration. As part of this, I’m excited to spend some time in the lab analysing site sediment samples and may also investigate programming models for site assessment. Finn: I’m looking forward to more fieldwork and taking part in the planting of seagrass seeds in the spring. Alongside the usual fieldwork, I am also going to be collecting data for my undergraduate project investigating the physical and biological factors that determine the distribution of seagrass on a fine and site-specific scale on the Isle of Wight. This data will help inform future decision making about selecting the best sites for seagrass restoration to hopefully increase the success of restoration. I have already collected some data, carrying out biotope mapping to characterise the habitats and species present alongside seagrass meadows and restoration sites. Each year Project Seagrass welcome a group on interns to develop their skills. These opportunities are available for students studying a university course that requires a year in industry as part of their studies and are advertised on our website. Keep an eye on our social media channels for announcements of future opportunities.