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.

Editorial
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Projects
December 15, 2021

Seagrass Nursery News – Vol. 3

By Elise Simone de Tourtoulon-Adams   A huge thank you to all of our supporters who helped us successfully raise more than £9,000 in the Aviva Community Fund to go towards developing this nursery.
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Richard Lilley
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ProjectsResearch
December 10, 2021

ReSOW UK

December 2021 – Blue Carbon coring in Loch Craignish, Argyll, Scotland.   The ReSOW UK project brings together teams from the National Oceanography Centre, Swansea University and the University of Stirling.  Project partners include the Marine Management Organisation, Natural Resources Wales, the Environment Agency, the Global Oceans Accounts Partnership, Natural England and the Coastal Communities Network, Scotland. Link through to the SMMR UK project website here. You can also read this blog over on our UK Restoration website here where you will also find more information on the restoration of seagrass beds in the UK.   Loch Craignish, Argyll, Scotland. And so…
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Editorial
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Projects
November 18, 2021

Seagrass Nursery News – Vol 2

By Elise Simone de Tourtoulon-AdamsIf you would like to donate to support the nursery please head to: https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/seagrass-nursery. Every donation helps and Aviva are currently matching your donation up to £50!
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Editorial
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Guest Blog
November 10, 2021

What is blue carbon?

By Jenny Black The Carbon Cycle It is likely that we have all heard of carbon but what might not be known is the fundamental role it plays in our ecosystems. Carbon will naturally move between the atmosphere and the earth’s surface through interactions between organisms and ecosystems in a process known as the ‘carbon cycle’. In the carbon cycle, carbon can be a gas in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂), or solid within organisms and rocks. On land, in what is known as terrestrial ecosystems, CO₂ can be captured, or sequestered, from the atmosphere and stored within plants…
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Bethan Thomas
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Awareness
October 29, 2021

Biodiversity is essential to planetary health

A few weeks ago part one of the UN Biodiversity Conference (aka COP15) took place in Kunming, China. Whilst all eyes are on the UN Climate Conference set to take place in Glasgow, UK next week, we must not forget the vital role that biodiversity plays in our planets health. Seagrass habitats are vital for supporting ocean biodiversity. Biodiversity loss threatens both people and planet, placing pressure on our health, economy, and food security. We are currently losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. The 2020 Living Planet Report estimated that between 1970 and 2016 the global populations of vertebrates declined…
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Editorial
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Projects
October 20, 2021

Seagrass Nursery News – Vol 1

Project Seagrass are embarking on a journey to build a seagrass nursery. This is no small feat and so we have enlisted the help of our new seagrass aquarist, Elise. Elise will be bringing you honest updates each month on how this journey is progressing. This is the start of making large-scale seagrass restoration possible. Stay tuned...
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Editorial
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Food for thoughtPS Updates
July 30, 2021

Ambition really is still critical for seagrass

Eight years ago sat on a roof top café at Swansea University we ambitiously set up a small marine conservation organisation called Project Seagrass. Swansea has always seemed a fitting place for Project Seagrass to start. After all it was deemed the ‘lovely ugly town’ by its most famous son, the poet Dylan Thomas. Thomas also went on to describe the place as the ‘graveyard of ambition’, a phrase that’s referred to in an artistic inscription outside the local train station by a more modern Swansea poet that states “Ambition is Critical”. The analogies to seagrass are striking, both entities…
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Editorial
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Guest Blog
April 7, 2021

An East African Marine Safari

By Sam Freeman In the summer of 2018, after finishing my penultimate year of my undergrad Marine & Freshwater Biology degree, I travelled to Watamu. Watamu is a small but beautiful coastal town just north of Mombasa, in Kenya – East Africa. Watamu is famous for its picturesque sandy-white beaches and tourist filled hotels dedicated to ecotourism. I volunteered on the marine programme at an environmental conservation NGO called A Rocha Kenya for two months. They are based right in the middle of East Africa’s oldest marine protected area, the Watamu Marine National Park (WMNP). The park covers a 10…
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Eve Uncles
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PS Updates
December 30, 2020

2020 : A Year In Review

As 2020 draws to a close, we look back on a year that has been nothing short of unusual. Despite the challenges, it has been a year for reflection, growth and innovation, and we believe there's never been more reason to work toward a brighter future. In the face of a pandemic, like everyone, Project Seagrass has had to adapt, but we've tried to continue our work, planting the final seeds in the two hectares of seagrass that represents the UK’s largest restoration project to date and forming relationships with like minded causes to work collaboratively in the fight against…
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Richard Lilley
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Awareness
November 15, 2020

A Life On Our Planet

“I’ve had an extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world – but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day – the loss of our planet’s wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet is my witness statement, and my vision for the future. It is the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake…
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