- July 15, 2024
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, South & West Wales Wildlife Trust, Swansea University, Carmarthenshire Local Nature Partnership, Sea Trust, and Welsh Government visited the Nursery as part of a networking day. Working collaboratively is essential to long-term success of seagrass restoration and the networking day provided an opportunity for local stakeholders to discuss existing work and opportunities to collaborate.
On the 10th July the Seagrass Nursery opened its doors to members of the local community with visitors from Laugharne, Pendine, and St Clears alongside the wider Carmarthenshire area.
“Excellent and exciting project – would be interested in its development” Community Feedback
“Beneficial to learn more about the advantages to the environment” Community Feedback
During the Open Days, visitors had the opportunity to join a guided tour of the Seagrass Nursery where members of the nursery team provided an insight into how we are growing seagrass, our approach to storing seeds, and the research we are undertaking into the best methods for seagrass cultivation.
“It was lovely being able to welcome members of the local community and organisations down to our nursery site. The days were a great opportunity to showcase not only our work at the nursery but wider projects from across South and West Wales. Collaboration is key in so much of our work, being able to network with groups while welcoming the local community and harness local knowledge was invaluable.” Emily Yates, Nursery Lead
Our South & West Wales project lead Emma Fox provided a talk about our existing work in West Wales including our ongoing monitoring and conservation work in Dale. Emma also shared our upcoming plans to trial further seagrass restoration within the area.
Dr Betti Walter, Marine Science Lead and Sam Rees our Research Assistant discussed our work to scale up the seagrass restoration process, providing visitors with an insight into the range of mechanisation projects that we have been exploring from seed planting sleds to underwater robots.
Our Seagrass Nursery partner Salix joined us for the open days to discuss the work taking place on the wider site in Laugharne and their work to provide sustainable solutions to the challenges found in soil erosion control and river restoration projects.
The work at our Seagrass Nursery is generously supported by Salix, Waterloo Foundation, Aviva Community Fund, and Ozone.
Our Volunteer and Outreach Officer Jo was on hand to discuss opportunities to support our restoration work. It was fantastic to see so many people keen to support future seagrass planting and monitoring projects. If you would like to get involved, sign up to join our Volunteer Database.
