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.

Finstown seagrass seed collection as part of the Restoration Forth August summer seed collection in Orkney.

Project Update: Restoration Forth August 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.  Restoration Forth August Fieldwork | Seagrass highlights from Orkney The seagrass team are not long back from Orkney, where

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3 divers are in the sea in Porthdinllaen

Fieldwork notes from our summer seed collections

Read our fieldwork notes from our summer seagrass seed collection: North Wales Seed Collection A brilliant start to our annual seed collections, with summer finally arriving right on time! The weather has been fantastic, with underwater visibility not too far off 10m, and not a drop of rain so far…

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Underwater seagrass seed harvester – Support our Crowdfunder!

Seagrass meadows are essential for the health of our oceans. They provide vital habitats for marine life, improve water quality, and store significant amounts of carbon. Unfortunately, these vital ecosystems are in decline. Here at Project Seagrass, we are on a mission to restore seagrass meadows to help create a

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A ray swims through a seagrass meadow.

Scientists and rangers share knowledge to restore seagrass

Scientists from The University of Western Australia have partnered with Indigenous rangers on a seagrass restoration project in Gathaagudu (Shark Bay) to help moderate climate change and conserve biodiversity. Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair and Professor Gary Kendrick, from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute, were co-authors of the paper published in Ocean

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The image shows seagrass growing next to an area of development in Mexico. There is a hotel on the seafront.

Seagrasses filter human pathogens in marine waters

An international team of researchers discovered that coastal urban seagrass ecosystems can significantly reduce human bacterial pathogens, including those with widespread antibiotic resistance, in marine bivalves—a vital food source for people around the world. The study, published Aug 2 in the journal Nature Sustainability, sheds light on the significant role seagrass meadows play

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Bob is standing on Porthdinllaen beach wearing a dryrobe. He has his hands in his pockets.

Seagrass Ocean Rescue Volunteer Profile: Bob

As our 2024 seagrass seed collection in North Wales draws to a close we spoke to Seagrass Ocean Rescue volunteer Bob Pethers about his experience of volunteering as part of the project. Tell us a little bit about yourself: I’m Bob Pethers, originally from London but have lived and worked

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A member of the Restoration Forth is crouched on the beach. They are holding a ruler and a clipboard as they record data as part of the monitoring of seagrass shoots.

Project Update: Restoration Forth | July 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.  Seagrass – the outcome of monitoring Back in March, 128 volunteers helped Restoration Forth plant more seagrass seeds along

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Scientists outline 10 golden rules for seagrass restoration

196 of the world’s nations are committed under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to tackling nature loss. Habitat restoration is a major pathway to tackling this loss. For marine habitats such as seagrass, such restoration is often portrayed as an easy answer to fighting many of our planetary ills causing

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A member of Project Seagrass staff and two members of the community are leaning over one of the ponds inside the polytunnel. One member of the community is holding a strand of seagrass to look at a flower.

Project Seagrass hosts Seagrass Nursery Open Days

On the 9th and 10th of July Project Seagrass welcomed local organisations and members of the community to our Seagrass Nursery in West Wales as part of a series of Open Days.  On the 9th July representatives from Pembrokeshire Council, Carmarthenshire Council, Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum, Rebel Energy, SeaLife, Bodorgan Estate,

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A fisher stands in the sea with a fishing rod.
press release

The underwater meadows sustaining millions in extreme poverty

The first large-scale analysis of its kind estimates that at least 18 million people living in poverty across the Indo-Pacific fish in seagrass meadows. Around 6.5 million may depend entirely on these overlooked habitats for fishing and subsistence.  Researchers warn that seagrass decline could deepen hunger, economic insecurity, and inequality

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Blades of Enhalus acoroides stand upright in the water.
new science

Mapping Indonesian seagrass quality to target blue carbon conservation

Not all of Indonesia’s seagrass meadows are faring alike. A study has revealed substantial spatial differences in the condition of 21 seagrass meadows across central and eastern Indonesia, providing a clearer picture of where ecosystems are thriving (hotspots), under stress (coldspots) or undergoing ecological change (outliers). But why does this

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Fish swim through a seagrass meadow.
Project Seagrass updates

Project Seagrass recognised as an Independent Research Organisation

Project Seagrass has been granted Independent Research Organisation status. This is an important milestone for Project Seagrass, but more importantly, it is a milestone for seagrass science. Since 2013, Project Seagrass has worked tirelessly to build a different kind of conservation organisation. One that is rooted in science, grounded in

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Ruppia maritima
new science

A resilient native seagrass species could help reshape coastal restoration

Seagrasses are among the most important foundation species in coastal ecosystems, providing habitat for marine life, stabilising sediments, and helping improve water quality. Yet nearly 20% of the world’s historic seagrass cover has been lost, and efforts to restore these vital underwater meadows often face significant challenges. In Florida’s Indian

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