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.

Blue Planet, Green Seas. What’s the take home message?

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

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Seagrass meadows key fishing ground globally

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

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Festivals of Seagrass: Cause for Ocean Optimism!

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

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Year FOUR of Project Seagrass!

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

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What a way to celebrate World Environment Day!

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

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Talking about Plastic Pollution during EU Green Week

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

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Searching for seagrass on Skye

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,

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One marathon down… Two to go! Next stop Edinburgh!

  Well, Sunday 23rd April came and went and…   I DID IT!  All those long runs, early mornings and late evenings were worth it. All that snow, rain and sleet…All in the name of Project Seagrass – my #ReasonToRun! There was a good buzz about the London Marathon. I completed

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Volunteers from Moray Ocean Community and partners at the Inverness Royal Academy Citizen Science day

Interview with Moray Ocean Community

We spoke to Moray Ocean Community about their volunteering in the Moray Firth area and how they integrate the SeagrassSpotter app into their activities. Read the full interview below: Can you tell us about Moray Ocean Community and how it started? Moray Ocean Community started to come together over two

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Europe

Seagrass planting trials underway in Cardiff

Scientists from the marine conservation charity Project Seagrass are undertaking seagrass planting experiments along the South & West Wales coastline, including a new planting site in Butetown along Cardiff’s Foreshore.  Cardiff’s Foreshore is a popular place for sea-angling for species such as cod, which uses seagrass meadows as a nursery

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A screenshot of the research paper "Seagrass meadows globally as a coupled social–ecological system: Implications for human wellbeing" overlain on an image of seagrass in North Wales
new science

Project Seagrass Journal Club: October 2024

We have just launched a journal club for the Project Seagrass team. These monthly meetups work much like a book club, members of the team each suggest a relevant scientific paper, vote on their favourite, then read the winning paper prior to meeting. During the journal club we critically discuss

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A screenshot of the research paper "New directions for Indigenous and local knowledge research and application in fisheries science: Lessons from a systematic review" overlain on an image of seagrass in North Wales
new science

Indigenous and Local Knowledge in Fisheries Science

Seagrass meadows play a critical role in keeping our oceans healthy and stocked with food, providing valuable nursery habitat to over 1/5th of the world’s largest 25 fisheries. Seagrass meadows are also important to small-scale fisheries, particularly as a place to find and collect a reliable source of food with some

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Coastal Communities Network Gathering 2024

Earlier this month Project Seagrass’ Senior Conservation Officer Katy Waring attended the yearly gathering for coastal communities from the Coastal Communities Network  facilitated by Fauna and Flora International. The event was held on the island of Millport at their field studies centre.   The 3-day event was inspiring; groups from around

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From left to right: View of the STARESO harbor entrance with Posidonia meadow islands and an accumulation of dead leaves. Close-up of litter accumulation. Experimental benthic incubation device ('bell') installed on accumulations of Posidonia dead leaves (10 m deep). Credit: G.Lepoint & W. Champenois / ULiège
new science

Dead leaves in sea break down into a compost that produces oxygen

Researchers from the University of Liège (BE) studied the fate of the material produced by Posidonia seagrass meadows. This study, carried out in the Mediterranean Sea at STARESO, shows that the dead leaves of what is commonly known as Neptune grass accumulate in shallow areas, where they break down like

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