The Edinburgh International Science Festival
Edinburgh Science Festival Bubbles and enthusiasm took over for Project Seagrass as we set up our stall at Edinburgh International Science Festival last week. The festival has taken over the city for two weeks every year since 1989, and was the world’s first public celebration of science, definitely something that we’re proud to have been involved with. The festival covers everything you could imagine- from the science behind which biscuit is the best tea dunker (rich tea was the winner) to trying your hand at programming a rescue robot! The seagrass meadow filled with many different colours and species! Our very own seagrass meadow was in pride of place in the middle of Summerhall, with a colouring station close by. We had all ages colouring in creatures to live amongst the seagrass, resulting in one of the brightest meadows I’ve seen. Colouring station with lots of creatures and ID guides to get inspired by. It was great to see how eager the kids were to learn and see more- they were fascinated by clips of cuttlefish swimming through the grass and loved hearing about our research. They also had the chance to dress up as a seagrass scientist – tiny tots wearing masks that covered their whole faces and trying to walk in fins that were bigger than the kids themselves. RJ sharing some of his seagrass experiences. The enthusiasm we got from the kids was reflected in the stalls around us, their cracking activities seemed to have permanent queues of public wanting to get involved with things like bee anthropology, the British Heart Foundation and speech and language research. The buzz that came from being part of such a successful event was felt by all the seagrass team so a huge thank you to those who put in so much hard work to make the festival happen and for letting us be a part of it! ( A big THANK YOU to Evie Furness, Rufus Sullivan, Laura Coomber, Lauren Skye Clayton, Dani Whitlock and Sarah Jane Pope for volunteering their time to help us deliver this event)
March – Seagrass Awareness Month
It’s only… SEAGRASS AWARENESS MONTH! ‘Seagrass Awareness Month’ has been designated as March ever since I started learning about these underappreciated ecosystems 6 years ago. However, the state-wide habitat engagement initiative appears to have been limited so far to just Florida in the USA. Why haven’t we made more of this outreach opportunity? I see no reason why, as a community, we can’t take ‘Seagrass Awareness Month’ global. Engagement this year from nations such as Norway suggests that there is appetite to build on the science communication momentum generated at the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop in Wales, and come together across the hemispheres to celebrate seagrass meadows! I know that as a Project Seagrass team we’ve spoken about the lack of an internationally recognised ‘Seagrass Day’. Yet, over in Texas, USA they will be celebrating their 8th Annual World Seagrass Day on the first Friday in April (April 7th, 2017). Celebrations will begin with a ‘World Seagrass Day’ parade, a state of the seagrass presentation and a half day science-based Seagrass Conference for fourth and fifth grade students from local schools. The team organizing the event estimate that just over 1,000 students will become more aware of the importance of seagrass meadows both to the local ecology and the local economy. I mean WOW! More of this is needed! Previously the Gulf of Mexico Foundation proclaimed the establishment of World Seagrass Day to be celebrated on the First Friday in the Month of March which would link in nicely with Seagrass Awareness Month. In fact, it might be worth settling on March the 1st as a day to kick-start the Seagrass Awareness Months’ festivities? Let’s get the discussion going, the World Seagrass Association will be meeting again in Singapore in 2018. Meanwhile here at Project Seagrass we’ll continue to develop our Seagrass Education and Awareness (SEA) resources. Do you like our new leaflet? We’ll be at the Edinburgh International Science Festival from the 10th-14th April and back at the Glasgow Science Festival on the 18th June. Drop in, we’ll have plenty of colouring opportunities for the kids and we’d love to chat with anyone who is keen to help us raise awareness of this essential ecosystem. Our Seagrass Education and Awareness (SEA) materials have been a hit with children It would be nice to think that by then we may have celebrated our first truly global World Seagrass Day and taken Seagrass Awareness Month to the international stage. Join the conversation, we’d love to hear your opinion. Contact us on Twitter @ProjectSeagrass or send us your thoughts at hello@projectseagrass.org. RJ
Fulsnygg! Loving The Ugly Duckling
For nearly 10 years I have been teaching, writing, tweeting, speaking, blogging, presenting and workshopping pretty much around the clock, in my role as a science teacher, a diving instructor, and now presently as a Science Communicator here at Project Seagrass. I’ve learnt to use all the communication tools I can – from websites, books, and newspaper articles to photographs, videos, lectures and feature documentaries. I’ve done my level best to communicate science using kindergarten science kits, through to syllabus prescribed carbon chemistry, and through delving into the emotional narrative and philosophy that I surround climate change discourse with at the college level. Yet I still struggle with doubt that I’m not doing enough to communicate the importance of science and what science means to humanity. Principally what it means to adopt a rational, logical and Fact-Based Worldview. In this brave new world of ‘alternative-facts’ and an open war on science, and after the untimely news of the passing of a personal hero of mine Hans Rosling (a grief shared by many I’m sure), I felt it pertinent to put my stake in the ground for science. Furthermore, it was important to articulate my LOVE on Valentine’s Day – both for science (the pursuit of truth) and of course for my beloved “ugly duckling” – our disappearing seagrass meadows. Show your love for seagrass meadows this Valentine’s Day I guess this blog sort of starts with my trainee teacher year in 2007, and the need I had to learn to communicate national curriculum prescribed science to my science classes. At the time, I did my best to become a ‘good teacher’; I read up on the latest science, and I delivered the facts as I knew them to the class, making sure they would have the right information, to get the right answers come exam time. I ticked all the right boxes. All that information was important (of course!), but I did worry that by being so calm, clinical and methodical in my pedagogy, that perhaps I was implicitly sending the message that some of the more existential science we covered (global phenomena like climate change and ocean acidification) were these just more facts to learn on the way to exam success. I thought maybe the planet wasn’t in a crisis at all… After all, why else would I be so calm about it? Working as a Science Teacher is a privilege, but also a great responsibility. Perhaps another reason I struggled was because of guilt. To quote Naomi Klein; “Climate change is intergenerational theft”. Shouldn’t I be discussing how this makes my students feel? Shouldn’t I be showing more anger at the path we are choosing to follow? Shouldn’t I be doing everything in my capacity to open their eyes to these issues and encourage them to alter the course we’re taking? Luckily for me, in 2006, Al Gore released a ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, a documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming and the science of climate change. (Quick heads up – ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’ will be in theatres July 28, 2017, and whilst I am here, you should also watch Before The Flood, November 6, 2016) To quote Naomi again; “The safety and habitability of our shared home is intensely emotional terrain, triggering perfectly rational feelings of loss, fear and grief”. Yet, despite these occasional emotionally charged narratives, climate discourse is often a clinical affair, weighed down with statistics (but yes we still need them!) and political jargon. Even in the sunshine, collecting data to be made into statistics can be an unengaging affair! Unfortunately, the tone of scientific discourse often fails to capture the feeling of what we stand to lose. Casting my mind back I remember when I first watched this passage from Al Gore I cried. (video link through text); “You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.” It made me realise that sometimes we need to go beyond statistics, and harness emotions if we are to communicate a real sense of importance. Ever engaged with the humble seagrass meadow! Seagrasses have been termed the ‘ugly ducklings of marine conservation’ ecosystems and there are enormous stakes of losing these productive carbon sinks and fisheries powerhouses. I have previously written that the loss of seagrass meadows is a carbon time bomb and we have even tried to link our science to what we think people care about… “For the love of cod, let’s save our disappearing seagrass” I’ve been quoted before stating that it is the people we love and care about that depend on seagrass and have tried to phrase this in the simplest way I know how; “So many coastal fishing communities are dependent on coastal health. To put it simply, if there are no baby fish, there are no adult fish and if there are no adult fish, there is no fishing industry” I’ve even put my signature on the World Seagrass Association’s statement, and a ‘call for action’ to protect ‘the lungs of the sea’. However, despite all this, I still don’t feel that the emotion, the genuine care and passion for raising awareness of this ecosystem is getting across in my message. So, let me attempt a new tactic, one that moves beyond the statistics and the science. Let me simply declare a LOVE for the most underappreciated, unrecognised and unknown of marine ecosystems, the humble seagrass meadow. Seagrass you are Fulsnygg! Fulsnygg (Ugly-Beautiful) is Swedish, and is the feeling that somebody (or something) is attractive despite its lack of
Transforming Education at bett 2017
In a previously life I was a Secondary School Science Teacher, and I was privileged to work at a fantastic school (alongside some of the most innovative and enthusiastic teachers the UK has to offer). I know these teachers took their pedagogy seriously, and I was reminded of this dedication when I saw a few familiar faces at ‘the bett show’ this week. Bett is the former British Educational Training and Technology Show and showcases the use of information technology in education. Founded in 1985, it is held annually at the ExCeL centre in London, England. The mission statement of bett is ‘to bring together people, ideas, practices and technologies so that educators and learners can fulfil their potential’. Transforming Education – The mission statement of the bett show Each year I attend bett, but I do so these days whilst looking through a different pedagogical lens. I attend with the explicit aim of learning about how advances in information technology could be harnessed by science communicators to help enhance marine education. In this case, our Project Seagrass – Seagrass Education and Awareness (SEA) program. There are numerous small exhibitors offering a suite of novel technologies To give you a flavour of the innovators that attend bett we should perhaps focus on a recent success story. One of the stand-out exhibitors of the past few years has been Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit-card sized, single-board computers manufactured in Wales by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Their mission statement is to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries. Just this week Google has announced it is planning to bring artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to the Raspberry Pi… don’t panic though, there are still plenty of other options for complete beginners! So was there anything could be useful for marine education at bett this year? Well yes, quite a lot actually. Immersive interactive were demonstrating their immersive classrooms for primary, secondary and special education needs education. Their stand demonstrated how a combination of high-end graphics, sound effects and animations could transport a child from the classroom into an ‘atmospheric panorama’ of the chosen place; be that an ancient Egyptian tomb, a humid Rainforest, or in my head, a Seagrass Meadow bustling with life! “‘It’s ‘not a teleport’, but at the moment it’s the ‘next best thing!’” Another take on creating a virtual reality though technology is ClassVR, which manufacture virtual reality headsets designed specifically for use in schools. Whilst wearing this headset I was able to take a dive into the open ocean with a Great White Shark, a friendly fella who swam right out of the blue to come and check me out. Virtual Reality in the Classroom One of the interesting developments for me personally was Kudlian’s new service; they now offer Civil Aviation Authority licensed lessons to use drones in schools. At Project Seagrass we have used drones for mapping coastal habitats and the scope for scientific advancement using this newly accessible technology seems limitless at the moment! In primary and secondary schools Kudlian propose using drones for; • Literacy – creative writing using aerial video and photographs; writing control manuals • Math – estimating and measuring heights, speed, distance travelled, time taken, angles, bearings • Computing – drones can be programmed using mobile devices • Geography – GPS logging, map reading, course planning • Media Studies – aerial footage in videos and media work • Physical Education – film matches and plays from different angles, • PSHE – debate the ethics of using drones and, of course, Science! The final exhibitor that struck a chord with me this week was AIPTEK. Whilst not specifically targeting pedagogy, AIPTEK definitely strive to make mobile teaching easier by developing a number of ‘mobile projection’ products. I was particularly impressed with the Boombox Projector P800 (a HD Projector with 360° Sound-System). For those of us who spend time at Science Festivals, or on the road travelling to give talks (in sometimes small and remote places) this is an all-in-one portable system that projects a clear picture whilst offering a crisp sound. Perfect! On a personal note, it was great to see ‘Hwb’ at bett this year! Hwb is a website and collection of online tools provided to all schools in Wales by the Welsh governement. It was created in response to the ‘Find it, Make it, Use it, Share it’ report into Digital Learning in Wales. The main site contains over 88,000 bilingual resources. In addition teachers and learners with accounts can sign in and access a range of other online tools and resources. Included in this is a school specific Learning Platform (Hwb+) It was great to see a Welsh presence at bett 2017 At we believe that education is the best approach to generate both awareness and understanding of both seagrass and the marine environment. Please support us in delivering our work by sponsoring SJ on her Three Before Thirty martahon challenge! Thanks and best fishes! RJ
Fàilte gu Alba – Project Seagrass and the Scottish Seagrass Network: A charity in Scotland.
Project Seagrass moved to Scotland in April 2016 stating that this moment would herald A New Dawn For Scottish Seagrass. We spoke then of our ambition to engage with Scotland’s coastal communities and begin the much needed process of mapping Scotland’s seagrass meadows. We also discussed our ambition for conducting outreach and education events starting in June with Project Seagrass at the Glasgow Science Festival 2016. These ambitions were picked up in Scotland’s National Newspaper in July, which ran the headline ‘Seagrass meadows to be saved around Scottish coasts’ and since then we’ve had a great many more positive developments to report, not least the great news this August 17th of our success in applying for charitable status in Scotland; Charity number SC046788! Fundamentally, these early successes have placed us in a strong position to make connections with coastal communities across Scotland. Kerri Whiteside of Fauna and Flora International has been instrumental in helping in this process (so thanks Kerri!) and through her we have become aware of so many grassroots community organisation’s such as; The South Skye Seas Initiative, The Community of Arran Seabed Trust, St Abb’s and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve, The Fair Isle Marine Environment and Tourism Initiative, The Community Association of Lochs and Sounds, and Sea Change Wester Ross to name a few! The next step on the journey is to develop a Scottish Seagrass Network with these communities, and with universities, students and organisations to help map and monitor Scotland’s seagrass. The Scottish Seagrass Network has been set up as a platform for volunteers who wish to assist Project Seagrass in mapping and monitoring Scotland’s seagrass meadows. This summer RJ has been up in Fife visiting the University of St Andrews where he has been coordinating with Rufus Sullivan (the President of the School of Biology) about a series of seagrass, education and awareness activities. Rufus Sullivan is the School of Biology President at the University of St Andrews where Project Seagrass will be conducting our SEA Program. He has also been across at the University of Glasgow meeting with our current intern Lauren Clayton about the future scope for Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) and Seagrass-Watch monitoring on the West Coast this autumn and into next year. These meetings have been of particular benefit since Lauren is a key member of the Glasgow University Sub Aqua Club and the club has shown an interest in assisting Project Seagrass in mapping seagrass distribution around Scotland via our SeagrassSpotter app! Lauren Clayton is an MSc student at The University of Glasgow and is core member of Glasgow University Sub Aqua Club. Beyond the academic connections it has also been important to make connections with existing educational organisations across Scotland. We are currently in the process of developing Scottish educational materials, but once these are ready we have already agreed to deliver some to the St Andrews Aquarium, and the Scottish Fisheries Museum. The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther We have sincerely enjoyed working in Scotland this summer and we are optimistic about the coming 12 months. I’ll blog again soon… So until then! Slàinte
The 4th International Marine Conservation Congress – Making Marine Science Matter.
www.conbio.org The International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) represents one of the most important international meetings for marine conservation professionals and students. IMCC4 was recently held in St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador between 30 July – 3 August 2016, building on from the success of Glasgow in 2014 and bringing together conservation professionals and students from across the globe. A key ambition for the conference is to develop new tools and foster collaborations that will further marine conservation science and policy. The overall theme of IMCCs is: “Making Marine Science Matter” For marine conservation to be effective, marine conservation science must genuinely matter to stakeholders, policy makers, and practitioners. To try to accomplish this, the IMCC congresses are generally organized around specific topics of interest for marine conservation, or as topics relevant to specific places. In addition to the regular conference proceedings, IMCC4 also witnessed the inauguration of “#OceansOnline”, a full day of Making Marine Science Matter through online communication and the use of other online resources. Here delegates participated in hands-on training workshops tailored to beginners, and facilitated discussion panels hosted by experts in their fields. Marine Science and Conservation Consultant Andrew Thaler was one of the plenaries – check him out at www.OceanographyforEveryone.com and at @SFriedScientist on Twitter. #OceansOnline is a first of its kind, and from a personal perspective it provided a platform for discussion on how internet tools can help marine scientists and conservation professionals with research, education and outreach. Something which is at the very heart of what we are trying to achieve with Project Seagrass and our SEA Program (Seagrass, Education, Awareness). Sessions about how and why we should talk about success in marine conservation and avoiding the pessimism trap gave us reason to pursue an outlook of #OceanOptimism. As well as ‘making waves inland’, the challenge for ocean literacy in land-locked locations – something that we should really not struggle with in the Britain, and yet we do, as we are never more than 70miles from the coast! #OceansOnline help bring together the online ocean community, facilitating new collaborations and pioneering new technologies. It was through #OceansOnline that I was directly involved, and proud to be. Inspirational colleagues from both academia and the fishing industry (see below) have made the point previously that policies about marine resource use of often decided in the absence of key stakeholders, and in particular with main fishermen feeling voiceless and ignored. This feeling is one that I can directly relate to from my work with the Lipsi Fishermen’s Association in Greece. Here I have worked with a group of fishers heavily reliant on the fisheries provision of their coastal seagrass ecosystems (Posidonia oceanica) and yet as a group they feel powerless to effect change in the regional fisheries management structure. So the idea was to run a workshop on “Bringing fishermen to the table” using online “Bambuser” technology. A simple concept, yet one that marks a pretty important development considering a lot of commercial fishermen (from both developed and developing countries) cannot attend conferences like IMCC4 or other such events. If the fishermen can’t come to the conference then the conference can come to the fishermen! As you can see from the screenshot below the Bambuser platform provides a livestream video feed and a chat function, allowing fishermen, scientists and policy makers to discuss issues around a virtual table. Whilst use of this technology is in its infancy for marine collaboration and communication, with the rapid developments in global internet speeds and connectivity, we all see online tools such as Bambuser as the future in providing essential communication channels between stakeholder groups. If the fishermen can’t come to the conference, then the conference can come to the fishermen! Whilst there may have been teething problems during the session (sound and stream quality in some locations), the general feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the session. We hope the session provided an example of what can be achieved for our oceans ‘online’, and that we see more use of online technologies to bridge the gap between stakeholders and provide a platform for discussion for marine resource management. Well that’s me for now. Until the next time!
The 13th International Coral Reef Symposium – Bridging Science To Policy
The International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) is the primary international meeting for researchers who are focused on coral reef science and management. In fact, as a conference it has a similar ecosystem focus to the International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW) that we will be hosting in Wales this coming October. The Symposium, held in Hawai’i last week brought together over 2,500 coral reef scientists, policy makers and managers from around 100 different nations in a forum to present the latest research findings, case histories and management activities, and to discuss the application of scientific knowledge to achieving coral reef sustainability. Coral reefs are one of our planets most bountiful ecosystems and they provide essential ecological, economic and cultural services to the people of tropical and subtropical islands and coastal communities worldwide. Coral reefs can be are a huge source of income to adjacent coastal communities through eco-tourist activities. Latest estimates suggest coral reefs provide close to US$30 billion each year in goods and services, so not only are do they support enormous biodiversity they are also of immense value to humankind. However, whilst scientific knowledge about coral reefs has increased exponentially over the past few decades, the state of reefs globally has declined during this period. Globally coral reef ecosystems are being degraded. Multiple stressors from the global actors of climate change, ocean acidification and overfishing to localized habitat destruction (above) are all contributing to habitat loss. To address this disconnect, the theme of the 13th ICRS was “Bridging Science to Policy”, with specific goals focusing on: Improving trust and communications among scientists, policy makers, managers and stakeholders. Developing strong partnerships between political leaders and the scientific community. Guiding efforts and strategies for effective allocation of limited financial, human and institutional resources to halt and reverse coral reef decline locally and globally. Developing a framework for quantitatively evaluating the effectiveness of coral reef protection and recovery activities and initiatives by applying the best available science. The ICRS is of course devoted to the best reef science available, with the purpose of sharing scientific findings with government agencies, resource management, and non-government organizations throughout the world. Such conferences are immensely important because they provide the international science community with a platform to: Increase global knowledge and interest in coral reefs, including sustainable use and conservation strategies; Showcase successful science, conservation and management efforts; Develop collaborations and partnerships to increase international capacity to address coral reef issues; and Increase global awareness of reef degradation and possible solutions by extensive promotion in the media. It is exactly through increasing global awareness and the developing of collaborations and partnerships that we as a global community are likely to address global challenges, and it is for this reason that so many scientists are being encouraged to take the Oceans Online. To conserve the world’s oceans we must go beyond just the production of science, but to also use it to inform policy and management, and ultimately to catalyze change. This change will only happen if we can reach out to all stakeholders, and work together with a common purpose, for many this means stepping up to the challenge of becoming public advocates for our natural environment. Many marine scientists are taking the #OceansOnline! Increasing global awareness of reef degradation whilst promoting possible solutions and #OceanOptimism. There are already many scientists who have taken this message to heart and produce a wonderful array of online media through which to inspire and engage. For example a fantastic summary of the ICRS 2016 conference can be found here and outstanding leadership from all the signatories of the conference (the 2,500 scientists at the ICRS) imploring Australia to protect the Great Barrier Reef here. So for all those involved in LIVE TWEETING from ICRS2016 – thank you! All that remains is to share and promote the ‘distilled down’ “Take-Home Messages” from the conference that are pertinent for us all to share in and acknowledge. These are: Reefs are threatened, not doomed Climate change, pollution and overfishing are the 3 drivers that ALL have to be addressed Local, pro-active interventions can help to build resilience of reefs to climate change, but reefs cannot be climate-proofed Prevention is better than cure, but recovery is possible Scientists can help by spreading the message that reefs can still be saved if we actually try harder! So let us also get to work! #TeamSeagrass
Project Seagrass at the Glasgow Science Festival 2016
Launched in 2007, Glasgow Science Festival (http://www.glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk) has grown to be one of the largest science festivals in the UK. The festival takes memorable events to non-traditional venues across the City of Glasgow where researchers, charities and non-governmental organistations are able to engage with people, from all ages and backgrounds. This year Project Seagrass were there to help celebrate Glasgow Science Festival’s tenth birthday, as they rolled out a bumper birthday programme of events to inspire and enlighten. BRUV videos from Wales, Greece and Indonesia were shown to highlight the biodiversity of seagrass meadows across our planet. We were involved in the Science Sunday Big Birthday Bash which is their flagship family day, and so communicating the importance of seagrass to budding young scientists was going to be the aim of the game. With this is mind, we set up some laptops with some of our underwater video footage from seagrass meadows in Greece, Indonesia and Wales. Children loved the opportunity to witness life under the ocean, especially the swimming crabs of the Wakatobi National Park. Our outreach materials were made available which went down a hit with budding young scientists! Stickers, postcards and posters are always a hit with young folk too and so we made sure we had plenty of materials to hand out to Scotland’s next generation of marine biologists! Both the children and parents alike were also keen to touch and feel wetsuits, fins, and underwater camera equipment to get a ‘hands on’ insight into the equipment needed for conducting fieldwork. The festival was buzzing all day, testament to the hardwork of the GSF team in promoting the festival. However, the biggest hit with the children had to be our seagrass meadow, where kids could colour in a range of fish, crabs and other seagrass beasties to stick in our seagrass meadow. We were even able to communicate the importance of seagrass as a nursery habitat for coral reefs with our fish occasionally making the journey across the hall to the Glasgow Science Festival Coral Reef! Our seagrass meadow was producing a vast amount of marine life! Flounder? Is that you? Do I see a bit of Disney influence in our seagrass meadow? Many of our fish made the perilous journey across the room to the coral reef, I’m glad our nursery habitat was productive! To all those involved in the hosting of the festival – thank you, and to all those involved to delivering an activity – well done! Keep up the good work at Glasgow Science Festival and see you in 2017! #TeamSeagrass
A New Dawn For Scottish Seagrass
Seagrasses grow all around the coast of the UK and around our islands within the intertidal zone. Scotland plays host to the highest abundance of seagrass when compared to the rest of UK, this is due to the better water quality and also a higher number of available sheltered sites around the coast of Scotland. Two species of Zostera can be found around our coastline: Zostera marina and Zostera noltii. Before the 1930’s both species thrived and were abundant, however a wasting disease outbreak in the 1930’s decimated the populations of much of Scottish Zostera and the population is still recovering today. The maps below shows the recorded abundance and distribution of Zostera around Scotland, the green boxes indicate records of seagrass (distribution maps obtained from NBN). The first map shows the extent of protected areas (both terrestrial and marine) around Scotland, the second the recorded abundance and distribution of Zostera species. The green boxes indicate records of seagrass (distribution maps obtained from NBN). The seagrass meadows of Scotland play a very important role in the biological diversity of Scottish coasts. Zostera meadows are very important for providing a habitat to juvenile and adult fish some of which are key fisheries species, as well as providing essential grazing for Brent and Canada geese and Mute and Whooper Swans. Seagrass is especially important for over-wintering grazers who need easy access to forage. For these reasons it is essential that certain (if not all areas) of seagrass be protected and so we are encouraging the government to extend current protection and provide additional protection to seagrass areas around the UK. The most common locations for abundant seagrass around Scotland are: on the East Coast; the Firth of Forth, Tay estuary and the Moray Firth, on the West coast; in a number of lochs in the Highland region, the Sound of Mull, around the Isle of Arran, Argyll and Bute and Dumfries and Galloway. Some unrecorded seagrass has been found within Gruinard Bay, Gairloch in the North West Highlands only a couple weeks ago. It has been estimated that Scotland plays host to around 20% of Zostera in North-western Europe and for all we know there is so much more still to be discovered around the Scottish coastline! Due to the topographical nature of the Scottish West coast we are convinced there should be a lot more seagrass than is currently recorded, and this is where YOU, the public can play your part. You can help by Project Seagrass by recording any sightings of seagrass to Seagrass Spotter our online database and app (app available from Google Store) so we can build up a map of the distribution of seagrass. We’re hoping that we can get the Scottish public involved in Seagrass Spotter and in performing Seagrass-Watch surveys to discover as many areas of seagrass around our coast as possible. Try our new recording app and website Seagrass Spotter Much of the seagrass around Scotland is protected by our territorial water MPA’s. There are 16 existing protection sites that are thought to be providing adequate protection to seagrass areas, a further 32 sites could have the potential to extend this protection if they were supplemented by MPA’s. These protected areas only cover a small area of seagrass, if further MPA’s were named or extended then the protection of Scottish seagrass would be much improved, with the majority of UK seagrass being found in Scotland it is vital that our seagrass is protected. Most recently the Wester Ross Biosphere area was created which protects a large area within the North-West Highlands. Research of Seagrass has been quite limited in Scotland, with the most extensive research being carried out on mapping techniques, the Tay estuary has had quite a lot of distribution and abundance monitoring as well as the North west coast. Due to this I think it is essential that Scottish seagrass be monitored more regularly and across a wider area. My aim with Project Seagrass is to raise the awareness and understanding about Seagrass around Scotland and get the public involved in SeagrassWatch. Over the summer we will be performing some public and educational outreach in and around Glasgow by showing a presence at the Glasgow Science Festival Science on Sunday 19th June 2016, if you’re around then please come along! (Click here for more information about Glasgow Science Festival). The ideal future will involve setting up some field trips to areas around Glasgow and further afield where we believe seagrass to be present and showing people how to carry out Seagrass Watch and educating the Scottish public about the importance and threats to seagrass. Hopefully with time this will increase to lots of cities, towns and villages across Scotland in order to show the public how to carry out Seagrass Watch and increase the public knowledge and awareness about UK seagrass, as well as getting some more widespread educational outreach started. We’lll keep you up to date with our progress and news of any Scottish events and findings.
CERF 2015 – Grand Challenges in Coastal and Estuarine Science
A long-standing tradition of Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) conferences is the friendly and collegial environment and the unwavering support for early career scientists. This #CERF2015 was no exception with a multitude of leading marine scientists inspiring the next generation with #OceanOptimism as together we tackle the Grand Challenges together. This was despite a brilliant opening keynote by Berth Kerttula, Director of the National Ocean Council. ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ of marine problems! #CERF2015 was very active on social media, check out the hashtag To give you a quick history lesson, CERF conferences have been held biennially since 1971 with the aim of: ”…advancing human understanding and appreciation of the Earth’s estuaries and coasts, to the wise use and management of these environments and to making the results of their research and management actions available to their colleagues and to the public.” Such admirable ambitions are inline with our own at Project Seagrass and so CERF conferences are natural home for promoting our vision: “Our vision is that our marine ecosystems are healthy, well-managed and full of life.” At this conference a whole range of topics pertaining to seagrass meadows were discussed. Seagrass restoration techniques were presented by Per-Olav Moksnes, Louise Eriander and Eduardo Infantes of Göteborg University in Sweden, whilst Rohani Ambo-Rappe showcased us transplantation methods for seagrass restoration in the Indo-Pacific. Michael Rasheed from James Cook University, Australia was able to report on the protection of the Great Barrier Reef seagrasses. He presented work on innovative monitoring of seagrasses at high risk from coastal development. Similarly Len McKenzie (also of JCU) was able to report on the status of seagrass meadows adjacent to the highly urbanized city-state of Singapore. One of the most inspiring research projects to be discussed at CERF2015 must surely be the work of the Zostera Experimental Network (ZEN). Pamela Reynolds provided a summary of research into the biodiversity and complexity of seagrass functioning across the northern hemisphere. Such collaborative research is surely cause for #OceanOptimism!# There were some fantastic posters at the conference documenting a range of seagrass research topics. Yet it wasn’t just the established names who were doing exceptional seagrass research. There were over 700 students and early-career scientists at the conference who had produced some fantastic research and were contributing significantly to our global knowledge base. Not least Erin Voigt won best student talk #CERF2015 for her work on the effect of structural complexity and biodiversity on seagrass ecosystem function. To all those involved in the hosting of the conference – thank you, and to all those who are conducting seagrass research – thank you! Keep up the good work and see you at ISBW2016. #TeamSeagrass