NEWS

NEWS

Keeping you up to date with Project Seagrass news and views with a mixture of field notes and commentary on seagrass and marine conservation topics.

A dugong eating seagrass in the Red Sea, Egypt

Seagrass loss leaves Thailand’s dugongs struggling to survive

This article was originally published on Dialogue Earth under the Creative Commons BY NC ND licence. The author is Siripannee Supratya. Siripannee Supratya (Noina) is a Thai journalist focusing on the environment, science, laws and socio-political happenings. In addition to her journalism work, she is a creative communicator and a professional diver. She is on

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Coldplay Ticket Competition, Photo Credit Anna Lee

And the winners are… Coldplay Competition winners announced

Earlier this year, Project Seagrass launched a creative competition in collaboration with our official patrons, Coldplay. The competition invited entrants to submit inspiring, impactful, and creative designs communicating one of the following five themes: 1. The importance of seagrass 2. Seagrass and people 3. Seagrass around the world 4. Seagrass

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Seaweed being grown along a line.

Expanding seaweed farms pose a risk to vital marine life

Seaweed farming is a rapidly expanding global industry. As a food resource, it has high nutritional value and doesn’t need fertilisers to grow. Seaweed provides valuable habitats for marine life, takes up carbon and absorbs nutrients, plus it helps protect our coastlines from erosion. Usually, seaweeds grow on hard, rocky surfaces. Yet, to

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An information board with information about Porthdinllaen in North Wales. On the left hand pillar of the board is a QR code where users can scan to receive further information about the seagrass meadow in Porthdinllaen.

QR code on Wales Coast Path reveals the story of seagrass

A new QR code on the Wales Coast Path at Porthdinllaen and Morfa Nefyn reveals the story of the large seagrass meadow in the shallow water. Thousands of people visit this area every year to enjoy its natural beauty, but few are probably aware of the seagrass meadow – estimated

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Gathaagudu is an area of natural beauty. Credit: Cat Williams

Partnership is key to restoring shark bay seagrass

Gathaagudu/Shark Bay is located on Malgana (pronounced Mal-guh-nuh) Country. It’s a place of great natural beauty and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The landscape is a stunning array of colors as the desert meets the ocean. Below the sea’s surface, 4,000 square kilometers of seagrass meadows sway. That’s equivalent to

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biodiversity

Green sea turtles have traveled to the same seagrass to eat for 3,000 years

For approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have returned to the same seagrass meadows to eat. This was discovered by Willemien de Kock, a historical ecologist at the University of Groningen, by combining modern data with archaeological findings. Sea turtles migrate between specific breeding places and eating places

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new science

What causes decline of tropical seagrass meadows?

Seagrass, a group of aquatic angiosperms, grows in shallow waters in the coastal sea and contributes most of the primary production while participating in many important ecological processes. Heat stress threatens the survival of seagrass, but its damage mechanisms are unclear. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Liu Jianguo

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biodiversity

Fauna return rapidly in planted seagrass meadows, study shows

A study of eelgrass meadows planted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg shows that fauna return rapidly once the eelgrass has started to grow. Already after the second summer, the biodiversity in the planted meadow was almost the same as in old established eelgrass meadows. Eelgrass meadows have declined

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