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.
The savannahs of the seas – our humble seagrass meadows are in peril In its Green Seas episode, Blue Planet II introduced us to seagrass meadows. Scarcely touched upon in past media when compared to coral reefs, mangroves and even kelp forests, we learnt about the vast potential of these
This weekend we are in for a treat as the BBC Blue Planet team broadcast episode 5 “Green Seas” for the first time (Sunday 26th November, BBC One, 8pm – don’t miss it!). The episode will reveal amazing footage of charismatic animals such as the Weedy Sea Dragon, the Green Sea Turtle
Fishing in seagrass occurs around the globe; if there is seagrass (and people) there is fishing. Still, the nature and extent of fisheries in seagrass is poorly understood. It is a prerequisite for natural resource management to understand resource exploitation, therefore we decided to investigate this further. Seagrasses are plants that
Over the next few days the Save Posidonia Project, Formentera celebrates the Save Posidonia Festival. The idea behind the project is to host a festival where culture, sport and environmental activities will be carried out that celebrate the fantastic contribution that the seagrass Posidonia oceanica makes to Mediterranean well-being. The festival is aimed both
Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. EPA-EFE Hurricane Irma – one of the strongest on record to hit the Caribbean – recently scoured the islands leaving catastrophic damage in its wake. And just as we began to piece together the devastating and potentially long–term impacts of Irma, Hurricane Maria has now left
Last weekend on July 22nd, Ullapool Rotary Club put on yet another wonderful “Round The Pier Day” and Project Seagrass were invited by the Scottish Wildlife Trusts, who, thanks to Ullapool Harbour Trust and staff, have been featuring a ‘Wildlife Marquee’ as be part of the day. We were thus able to join Hebridean Whale
So that’s 4 years, 1460 days, 35,040 hours, 2,120,400 minutes or 12,614,400 seconds of seagrass! 2016/2017 has been our biggest 12 months to date, with our hosting of the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop at Nant Gwrtheyrn the obvious highlight. But that’s not all we’ve been up to this year. Since our ‘3 years
WOW! I only went and ran THREE marathons in SIX weeks! TODAY, on non-other than World Environment Day (WED), I am SO happy to have completed the challenge I set down for myself, and to have raised over £1,700 for Project Seagrass to continue their great work. What an amazing way
Kayaking on the Isle of Skye’s lochs you feel as though you’re a million miles from civilisation; back to basics with wildlife flitting about you and crystal clear waters to peer into. There’s no rumble in your ear of background traffic noise or aeroplanes going overhead. Just you, your paddling
Scotland threw it all at us, and I think for the most, we enjoyed every part! After 13 hours on the road, we turned off to Heaste, the village we were staying in on the Isle of Skye. We headed off down a single-track lane, full of blind corners and summits,
The Ocean is in crisis. Coral reefs are bleaching, seagrass meadows are vanishing, mangroves are being cleared, and biodiversity is plummeting. Scientists estimate we’ve already lost up to 50% of global saltmarshes, 35% of mangroves, and 20% of seagrasses. Yet alongside this sobering decline, momentum for marine restoration has never
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government circulated a draft version of Scotland’s first Blue Carbon Action Plan with key stakeholders to gather comments and feedback. Project Seagrass was one of the organisations contacted as part of this process. The Blue Carbon Action Plan sets out the Scottish Government’s position and
Posidonia seagrass meadows, veritable underwater forests, play a major ecological role. Under constant pressure from human activity, scientists are looking for ways to ensure their survival, in particular by carrying out restoration campaigns. A study conducted by the University of Liège at the marine and oceanographical research station STARESO (Calvi,
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
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;
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
