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 seagrass meadow in Orkney. A lighter reproductive shoot is present.

Summer surveys in Scotland’s seagrass meadows

This summer, the Sjogras Partnership returned to Orkney to undertake a range of surveys to further develop our understanding of the health and extent of Orkney’s important seagrass meadows.    Between the 19th July and 1st August, Professor Joanne Porter from Heriot Watt University  and Dr Elizabeth Lacey from Project Seagrass

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Laura Suggitt swimming the Channel
Channel Swim

Successful swim to support seagrass

In a guest blog post, Laura Suggitt shares her experiences of swimming the Channel to raise vital funds for environment funds including Project Seagrass: Earlier this month, I swam across the English Channel to France with my team, The Matriarsea. We completed the crossing in 12 hours and 49 minutes;

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Four people are standing at the front of a room. Three members of the group are holding paper with post-it notes on as part of a workshop activity.
Global Seagrass Challenge

Reflections from the Seagrass Knowledge for Action in Southeast Asia Workshop

This summer, teams came together in Makassar, Indonesia, for the Seagrass Knowledge for Action in Southeast Asia workshop to explore pathways forward for strengthening knowledge, building research capacity, and development to further safeguard local seagrass social-ecological systems. Co-hosted by Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS) and Project Seagrass, the workshop involved teams from

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A pair of dark bellied Brent Geese fly through the sky. The sky is grey
biodiversity

The Brent Goose: Creatures that call seagrass home

In a new blog series, our Conservation Trainee Abi David explores some of the amazing creatures that call seagrass meadows their home. The Brent Goose Branta bernicla is of a similar size to a Mallard duck, making it one of the smallest goose species in the world. They are a

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A map of the world showing where seagrass has been spotted using SeagrassSpotter
coastal systems

Harnessing open data to understand coastal social-ecological systems

Our oceans and coasts are home to ecosystems that provide immense benefits to people, from food and livelihoods to carbon storage and coastal protection. In particular, seagrass meadows are archetypal social-ecological systems (SES), linking human well-being to ecosystem health. But to manage these systems effectively, we need access to both ecological

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Zostera marina seagrass meadow. Credit Ben Jones
Chesapeake Bay

Seagrass swap could reshape Chesapeake Bay food web

Beneath the surface of the Chesapeake Bay, a subtle but dramatic shift is taking place as eelgrass gives way to its warmer-water relative, widgeon grass. A new study from researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS shows that this seagrass swap could have ecological impacts across the Bay’s

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