Editorial

Written by Maru Bernal Last October 9th, the Ocean Hackathon® 2020 took place in Mexico City. This is an event in which multidisciplinary teams have access to international databases and have 48 hours to develop a pilot project or proof of concept that targets an ocean-related problem. This year’s event, organized by IFAL (French Institute of Latin America), had seagrasses as protagonists when the team called “Carbón ¡Oh no!” won the first place with a project that targeted seagrass beds conservation. In spite of their relevance and vulnerability, seagrass beds constitute one of the least protected ecosystems on the planet.…

Like many of you, WWF staff have been working from spare rooms, kitchen tables and the occasional garden patio for the past few months. When a call came to join our partners at Project Seagrass and Swansea University on a seagrass seed collection trip to North Wales, it was a welcome break from the (new) norm. WWF has been working closely with Project Seagrass, Swansea University and Sky Ocean Rescue to conduct the biggest seagrass restoration project undertaken in the UK - aiming to restore 20,000 m2 of the marine plant, following the disappearance of up to 92 per cent of the…

Elise and myself look after all the native marine species at The Deep, an aquarium in Hull. I’m very new to all things native having previously worked with penguins and tropical fish but Elise is a pro, thankfully accepting me as her apprentice. We first heard about the work of Project Seagrass and Swansea Uni when Elise went to the National Aquarium Conference (NAC) in late 2019. From there we attended the first BIAZA seagrass focus group meeting organised by Sam and only a few weeks after that we set off on the train to Wales. The seven hour journey…

Mike, Sam, Sam and Owen all started out as students with a love for the ocean on their doorsteps, over the summer they became 'underwater gardeners' and joined the Seagrass Ocean Rescue team from the collection of almost a million seeds through to planting 1.5 hectares of seagrass in Dale, Pembrokeshire. Mike Parker, Sam Files, Sam Petts and Owen Maddocks are four students from Swansea University, they met three years ago through the sub-aqua club and have logged their fair share of dives together ever since. Over a Zoom call in April, I had the opportunity to ask them about…

We were extremely excited to build up a relationship with Project Seagrass. Being asked to take part has enabled us to develop our skills and knowledge as staff to help progress with our own school project ‘AYM Project Plastic’. The children have absolutely loved this experience! They have gained lots of skills and knowledge. More importantly for us as a school, many of our pupils find it difficult to think about what they aspire to be, however since working with Project Seagrass many now talk about their aspirations to become marine biologists and are very eager for us to become…