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
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
Edinburgh Science Festival Bubbles and enthusiasm took over for Project Seagrass as we set up our stall at Edinburgh International Science Festival last week. The festival has taken over the city for two weeks every year since 1989, and was the world’s first public celebration of science, definitely something that we’re proud
Over ONE MILLION participants have had a #ReasonToRun since the first London Marathon in 1981. The training and sacrifices involved with running a marathon are enormous, not least the amount of time it takes just to put the miles in day in day out, and the weekends that are geared all around
I was recently ‘nudged’ to do something by a fellow seagrass enthusiast who shall remain nameless for the time being! I must admit that I have been distracted by life and other ‘things’ for several months and desperately needed that ‘nudge’ to get going again. So, with March being Seagrass Awareness
It’s only… SEAGRASS AWARENESS MONTH! ‘Seagrass Awareness Month’ has been designated as March ever since I started learning about these underappreciated ecosystems 6 years ago. However, the state-wide habitat engagement initiative appears to have been limited so far to just Florida in the USA. Why haven’t we made more of
Hello again folks, So, we’re less than 8 weeks out from the London Marathon (23rd April) and the training is going well. My longest distance so far is 17 miles and we’ve got an 18-mile run in the diary for this weekend. The mornings are beginning to get lighter earlier (sunrise was
For nearly 10 years I have been teaching, writing, tweeting, speaking, blogging, presenting and workshopping pretty much around the clock, in my role as a science teacher, a diving instructor, and now presently as a Science Communicator here at Project Seagrass. I’ve learnt to use all the communication tools I
Hello! My name is Sarah Jane Pope and this year I am running the London, Edinburgh and Stockholm marathons this year to raise money for Project Seagrass. I’ll get straight to the point… You can sponsor me here! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SJPopester I decided to take up this challenge because I wanted to
There’s an odd bunch of people with a strange sounding passion – a passion for seagrass. You’d think that anything with grass in its name might be boring, especially when compared to ecosystems like tropical rainforests, filled with birds of paradise or the vast savannas of Africa filled with elephants
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 buddy and the creatures that decide to make themselves known. Feeling completely remote on Loch Eishort. Being somewhere that appeared so untouched by man is a luxury hardly ever come across in the modern day, but the illusion was burst as we stopped at a beach at the top of Loch Eishort. The place was awash with tropical blue – bright blue nets and ropes, tubs and wrappers. A sea of rubbish. Mixed in were huge buoys washed up from the mussel farm across the loch. You can’t help but wonder why the farmer doesn’t make the less than five-minute boat ride across the loch to retrieve them, rather than splashing out on new ones? Doesn’t he / she worry for the health of the mussels with that much rubbish just the other side? Mussels are filter feeders, taking in any particles in the water, including degrading plastic. A glimpse of the rubbish at the top of Loch Eishort. But it’s not just the top of Loch Eishort where we were shocked. Camasunary is a bay on the Isle of Skye only accessible by boat or walking a few kilometres over a rocky track. Reaching it you expect to be isolated from the world, but instead we were greeted with all of man’s rubbish. (On a more positive note, we did find some seagrass washed up in with the rubbish, so hopefully there’s a healthy bed close by!). An uninhabited island. It makes stories such as Henderson Island, one of the world’s most remote islands, having been found to have nearly 18 tonnes of plastic weighing it down, sadly, less shocking. If we can leave this much mess in areas where we can get to, then there’s no surprise that it’s spreading to places where humans should never be. Our way of thinking needs to change. Plastics are not a onetime thing, we need to reduce the amount we use and reuse everything else. The plastic bag charge was one small step in the right direction, but we need a lot more. Choose veg without tonnes of wrapping, try to avoid one use coffee cups, retrieve that buoy instead of buying a new one; small changes will add up. Let’s try to save those last few untouched havens. Thanks for reading! Evie
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 the London Marathon in a time of 4hrs and 2 minutes. I’m so relieved to have made it round in one piece… I really can’t believe I’ve ran my first marathon after all these months of training! I just want to thank everyone who has sponsored me so far! http/uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SJPopester However, it’s not over yet! My personal nemesis is my home marathon, and the one that I am most looking forward to doing! I trained for Edinburgh in 2012 and was on the final big 22-mile run when I tripped over a root of a tree and injured my IT band. Devastated. The Edinburgh Marathon (28th May) is now just a little under 3 weeks away and so there has been a nice gap between the first two marathons. It’s allowed me to take a break and recover, and join Director RJ on a little seagrass hunt around the Scottish West Coast. The Scottish Coast is incredible.The waters are crystal clear which is perfect for seagrass spotting! However, I think the real challenge for me now is not just completing the Edinburgh Marathon, but will be in recovering from Edinburgh and getting ready for the Stockholm Marathon (June 3rd) just a week later! This is going to be especially difficult since I am flying back to Edinburgh after the marathon on Saturday so I can help run the Tour de Forth event taking place on Sunday 4th June! Busy busy! I don’t want to look too far ahead but I am excited about the ‘Grand Finale’ in Stockholm. It means I will have overcome Edinburgh and have completed my #ThreeBeforeThirty challenge! Until then, I guess I have a few more pavements to pound! If there is a city to rival Edinburgh’s beauty, it must be Stockholm. Breathtaking. See you in Edinburgh! SJ x PS – You can keep me motivated here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SJPopester If anyone, like SJ, has a desire to challenge themselves for charity then we are all ears! Simply contact us at info@projectseagrass.org
Edinburgh Science Festival Bubbles and enthusiasm took over for Project Seagrass as we set up our stall at Edinburgh International Science Festival last week. The festival has taken over the city for two weeks every year since 1989, and was the world’s first public celebration of science, definitely something that we’re proud to have been involved with. The festival covers everything you could imagine- from the science behind which biscuit is the best tea dunker (rich tea was the winner) to trying your hand at programming a rescue robot! The seagrass meadow filled with many different colours and species! Our very own seagrass meadow was in pride of place in the middle of Summerhall, with a colouring station close by. We had all ages colouring in creatures to live amongst the seagrass, resulting in one of the brightest meadows I’ve seen. Colouring station with lots of creatures and ID guides to get inspired by. It was great to see how eager the kids were to learn and see more- they were fascinated by clips of cuttlefish swimming through the grass and loved hearing about our research. They also had the chance to dress up as a seagrass scientist – tiny tots wearing masks that covered their whole faces and trying to walk in fins that were bigger than the kids themselves. RJ sharing some of his seagrass experiences. The enthusiasm we got from the kids was reflected in the stalls around us, their cracking activities seemed to have permanent queues of public wanting to get involved with things like bee anthropology, the British Heart Foundation and speech and language research. The buzz that came from being part of such a successful event was felt by all the seagrass team so a huge thank you to those who put in so much hard work to make the festival happen and for letting us be a part of it! ( A big THANK YOU to Evie Furness, Rufus Sullivan, Laura Coomber, Lauren Skye Clayton, Dani Whitlock and Sarah Jane Pope for volunteering their time to help us deliver this event)
Over ONE MILLION participants have had a #ReasonToRun since the first London Marathon in 1981. The training and sacrifices involved with running a marathon are enormous, not least the amount of time it takes just to put the miles in day in day out, and the weekends that are geared all around your run! It’s a huge commitment, and yet hundreds of thousands of people run marathons every year, but WHY do they do it? For many the challenge might be personal, testing themselves physically and mentally, and pushing their own limits, yet for others it has become a recognized medium for enabling positive change, for raising money for a charity and a cause that you believe in. In this sense, the marathon is more than just a race, it’s a celebration of the more positive sides of the human character! (and I think we all need that right now) My #ReasonToRun is something that I would never have even thought about just 5 years ago, let alone be passionately supporting today, but then I guess the same could be said of many people training for these events… We all have those moments in life when we are blindsided by chance events that affect us deeply and personally. It is often these events that ignite a fire in us to ‘make a difference’ and ‘be the change’. I guess it’s about recognizing a need, and knowing that you have an opportunity to contribute to fill the void. Does that make sense? Like so many of us, my #ReasonToRun is deeply personal, I want to build a better world for my niece. For me a real gear shift happened in September 2015 with the birth of my niece. Here before me was a magical little soul being born into turbulent world. I was instantly filled with both joy and fear for her future. But why the fear? From the wider Project Seagrass team I have learnt so in the last few years about the state of our world’s oceans, about climate change, and ‘food security’ (or should that be insecurity?). But what is “food security” I hear you ask? Well, let’s take one example… If current global population projections hold true (i.e. we are right about the predicted future population), then a further 2 BILLION people are expected in Africa, Asia and Oceania by 2050. That would mean that by then an extra 75 MILLION tonnes of fish would be required on an annual basis! However, today, only 69% of marine fisheries are now biologically sustainable, which is down from 90% in 1974. Now, let us just think about it for a second, we need more and more fish each year to feed an ever growing population, even though we have less and less fish in the oceans each year!? How on earth (or in ocean) is that going to work!? I’m no scientist (or mathematician for that matter!), but even so, you don’t need a PhD to see that we can’t keep on doing things like overfishing! If I keep taking money out the bank then one day it will run out – is that not obvious!? I guess that, despite the popular saying, there are NOT plenty more fish in the sea! Another (and linked) worrying matter for me is climate change! The Great Barrier Reef was recently described as being at a ‘terminal stage’ with back-to-back severe bleaching events have affected two-thirds of the reef. It pains me to think that we could be about to lose one of great natural wonders of the world. Like Sophie (below) it certainly makes me worried about bringing new life into the world. The changing climate is the single biggest challenge facing humanity today I get frustrated because it’s not like the climate is ‘magically’ going to return to how it was before, or that somehow fish are going to fill up our seas once more! So my question you all is: Is this really the world we are leaving for our children? I find that it’s easy to get drowned in pessimism about the state of our planet. Especially with some questionable leadership in key positions at the moment! But that’s not to say that between us all our individual and collective positive actions are not making a difference. This is the mindset adopted by Project Seagrass. That of Ocean Optimism! Ocean Optimism started in June 2014 as a movement for sharing success stories, and the progress in solving marine conservaton challenges. Reaching over 60 million Twitter users since it’s inception, #OceanOptimism has inspired an international outpouring of marine conservation success stories. My #ReasonToRun is therefore fairly simple, I want to raise awareness of global food insecurity and make a difference to Project Seagrass. By raising money for Project Seagrass I hope to enable them to continue to their hard work and do my bit to ensure that a different outcome is possible. I chose Project Seagrass for two reasons. First, because seagrass combats climate change (it stores carbon dioxide underground), and secondly, because seagrass is a nursery ground for baby fish (it provides the fish we eat), so what better a habitat to support! Maybe if we can all bring a little bit of Ocean Optimism into our lives and support our marine charities then together we can change the course we are charting towards a better future… In the words of Howard Zinn. “remember, small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can change the world.” Wish me luck for the Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday! SJ x
I was recently ‘nudged’ to do something by a fellow seagrass enthusiast who shall remain nameless for the time being! I must admit that I have been distracted by life and other ‘things’ for several months and desperately needed that ‘nudge’ to get going again. So, with March being Seagrass Awareness Month, I decided to briefly explore the world of Egyptian seagrasses. To first set the scene, I will give some details about my weird but, although I say it myself, wonderful past. This may partially explain the whys, whats and wherefores of this particular prose! Some 20 years ago (already 20 years, I ask myself?), being a keen but inexperienced scuba diver with a coastal and marine management MSc under my belt, I discovered that Marine Conservation Society ran two-week coral reef survey expeditions to the Hurghada area of the Egyptian Red Sea. I jumped at the chance to participate and dive into tropical waters for the first time. It was a very steep learning curve, both in terms of my scuba skills and my general marine survey and ID skills. To cut a long, weird and wonderful story short, I ended up working in Egypt mostly as a diving instructor and, when the opportunity arose, as a citizen conservationist. Nowadays, I am slowly but surely extricating myself from Egypt’s steely grip and spending my time between there and the UK, looking for an opportunity that will satisfy my eternal curiosity about our oceans and that will offer future prospects and stability (a sign of my age, I think!). I began taking an interest in seagrasses around 2009, mainly because they are feeding grounds for dugongs, green turtles and other slightly strange-looking critters. The love affair began in earnest about a year ago! Seagrass meadows are often full of weird and wonderful creatures such as this colourful nudibranch (Photo: Jessica McGarty) And now back to the matter at hand … Egyptian seagrasses! Egypt has two coastlines, one bordering the Mediterranean Sea and one bordering the Red Sea, the latter being where I will try to focus. Both coastlines feature your hero and mine: seagrass. I’m not a trained biologist or ecologist, tending more towards social sciences, so I thought it would be good practice to boost my knowledge and review some of the scholarly works relevant to seagrasses of the Egyptian Red Sea littoral. The first point of call was Google, the search terms “Egypt” and “seagrass”, and I was interested to find seagrass products from Ikea and scant information about the real deal living in the ocean. I widened the search to “Red Sea” and “seagrass” but found papers relating to other countries bordering the Red Sea with some familiar names attributed to them. It was the same result when I consulted the World Atlas of Seagrasses (2003). This pioneering work, edited by Green and Short, did detail that there are 11 tropical seagrass species in the wider Red Sea area, namely Halodule uninervis, Cymodocea rotundata. Cymodocea serrulata, Syringodium isoetifolium, Thalassodendron ciliatum, Enhalus acoroides, Thalassia hemprichii, Halopliila ovalis, Halophita ovata, Halophila stiputacea and Halophila decipiens. Several hours later, information was still not forthcoming, so I read the few documents I had gathered using various search engines, both general and academic, and numerous search terms. One report in particular was informative, namely El Shaffai’s Field Guide to Seagrasses of the Red Sea (2011), also describing a twelfth species, Halodule pinifolia. This field guide describes all 12 species of seagrass that are found in the Egyptian Red Sea. Now I know I have absolutely no excuse for not being able to identify Egyptian seagrasses down to species level! There are 12 tropical seagrass species in the wider Red Sea area (Photo: Jessica McGarty) A more detailed study of the ecology, distribution and density of seagrasses in Wadi Gemal National Park, southern Egypt, was undertaken by El Shaffai, Hanafy and Gab-Alla in 2014. Additionally, Osama (2010) attempted to use remote sensing to assess distribution in the Hurghada area and highlighted some of the factors affecting seagrass abundance and diversity. Thinking out loud, I wonder whether the power of remote sensing can be fully harnessed to map the distribution and extent of Egyptian seagrasses? It will be a good starting point for management and protection of these habitats that are so vital to environment and society. A further paper from Khalafallah et al (2015) also indicated some of the ecosystem services provided by seagrasses and detailed their diversity and abundance at four sites in Hurghada and Safaga. This paper recognised the current limited knowledge about Egyptian seagrasses, as did Osama in 2010, and the importance of coastal zone management to help lessen harmful impacts upon them. Seagrasses provide numerous ecosystem services including fisheries provision (Photo: Jessica McGarty) It is clear that much work needs to be done to ensure the survival of Egyptian seagrasses, as coastal development continues at a fair rate of knots and with that comes additional nutrients, sediment and rubbish that may overload seagrasses and inhibit their valuable functions and services to society. Not to mention, tourists and local communities unwittingly causing damage through trampling, boating and fishing. Any scientists interested in furthering the cause of Egyptian seagrasses will have a willing assistant in myself, whether they like it or not! It is a rare site these days when you don’t see plastics in a seagrass meadow (Photo: Jessica McGarty) In an attempt to stimulate interest, I always try to persuade guests and colleagues alike to come for a dive with me over the seagrass at Voodoo Divers’ house reef in Hurghada, but my success is limited. However, it was heartening a couple of weeks ago whilst out for a ‘staff dinner’. My friends and colleagues briefly chatted about seagrass over dinner (a conversation instigated by yours truly!), with someone even mentioning that she had taken an interest and learned some important facts because of my enthusiastic praising of seagrass! She wasn’t joking either! The seagrass meadow at Voodoo Divers’ house reef is flourishing
It’s only… SEAGRASS AWARENESS MONTH! ‘Seagrass Awareness Month’ has been designated as March ever since I started learning about these underappreciated ecosystems 6 years ago. However, the state-wide habitat engagement initiative appears to have been limited so far to just Florida in the USA. Why haven’t we made more of this outreach opportunity? I see no reason why, as a community, we can’t take ‘Seagrass Awareness Month’ global. Engagement this year from nations such as Norway suggests that there is appetite to build on the science communication momentum generated at the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop in Wales, and come together across the hemispheres to celebrate seagrass meadows! I know that as a Project Seagrass team we’ve spoken about the lack of an internationally recognised ‘Seagrass Day’. Yet, over in Texas, USA they will be celebrating their 8th Annual World Seagrass Day on the first Friday in April (April 7th, 2017). Celebrations will begin with a ‘World Seagrass Day’ parade, a state of the seagrass presentation and a half day science-based Seagrass Conference for fourth and fifth grade students from local schools. The team organizing the event estimate that just over 1,000 students will become more aware of the importance of seagrass meadows both to the local ecology and the local economy. I mean WOW! More of this is needed! Previously the Gulf of Mexico Foundation proclaimed the establishment of World Seagrass Day to be celebrated on the First Friday in the Month of March which would link in nicely with Seagrass Awareness Month. In fact, it might be worth settling on March the 1st as a day to kick-start the Seagrass Awareness Months’ festivities? Let’s get the discussion going, the World Seagrass Association will be meeting again in Singapore in 2018. Meanwhile here at Project Seagrass we’ll continue to develop our Seagrass Education and Awareness (SEA) resources. Do you like our new leaflet? We’ll be at the Edinburgh International Science Festival from the 10th-14th April and back at the Glasgow Science Festival on the 18th June. Drop in, we’ll have plenty of colouring opportunities for the kids and we’d love to chat with anyone who is keen to help us raise awareness of this essential ecosystem. Our Seagrass Education and Awareness (SEA) materials have been a hit with children It would be nice to think that by then we may have celebrated our first truly global World Seagrass Day and taken Seagrass Awareness Month to the international stage. Join the conversation, we’d love to hear your opinion. Contact us on Twitter @ProjectSeagrass or send us your thoughts at hello@projectseagrass.org. RJ
Hello again folks, So, we’re less than 8 weeks out from the London Marathon (23rd April) and the training is going well. My longest distance so far is 17 miles and we’ve got an 18-mile run in the diary for this weekend. The mornings are beginning to get lighter earlier (sunrise was at 07:08 this morning) Luckily for us, the mornings are beginning to get lighter earlier and so I am no longer starting my runs in the dark before I start work. The Edinburgh Marathon (28th May) is still a little over 12 weeks away and so there is a nice gap between the first two marathons. However, I think the real challenge will be backing up for the Stockholm Marathon (June 3rd) just a week later! We were in Stockholm this weekend, and whilst sunny it was cold! Let’s hope for a warmer marathon weekend! But why I am I doing this challenge? To raise money for Project Seagrass of course! I’m not a scientist, but I wanted to help the team in a way that I can and support them on their mission to raise awareness of seagrass meadows. Personally, I have learnt so much about these amazing ecosystems and I admire the dedication these guys have shown in growing Project Seagrass into the successful organisation it is today. I mean what an amazing achievement to build a charity from scratch whilst working full time! Surely their efforts alone are worth some sponsorship? Donate SJ x If anyone, like SJ, has a desire to challenge themselves for charity then we are all ears! Simply contact us at info@projectseagrass.org
For nearly 10 years I have been teaching, writing, tweeting, speaking, blogging, presenting and workshopping pretty much around the clock, in my role as a science teacher, a diving instructor, and now presently as a Science Communicator here at Project Seagrass. I’ve learnt to use all the communication tools I can – from websites, books, and newspaper articles to photographs, videos, lectures and feature documentaries. I’ve done my level best to communicate science using kindergarten science kits, through to syllabus prescribed carbon chemistry, and through delving into the emotional narrative and philosophy that I surround climate change discourse with at the college level. Yet I still struggle with doubt that I’m not doing enough to communicate the importance of science and what science means to humanity. Principally what it means to adopt a rational, logical and Fact-Based Worldview. In this brave new world of ‘alternative-facts’ and an open war on science, and after the untimely news of the passing of a personal hero of mine Hans Rosling (a grief shared by many I’m sure), I felt it pertinent to put my stake in the ground for science. Furthermore, it was important to articulate my LOVE on Valentine’s Day – both for science (the pursuit of truth) and of course for my beloved “ugly duckling” – our disappearing seagrass meadows. Show your love for seagrass meadows this Valentine’s Day I guess this blog sort of starts with my trainee teacher year in 2007, and the need I had to learn to communicate national curriculum prescribed science to my science classes. At the time, I did my best to become a ‘good teacher’; I read up on the latest science, and I delivered the facts as I knew them to the class, making sure they would have the right information, to get the right answers come exam time. I ticked all the right boxes. All that information was important (of course!), but I did worry that by being so calm, clinical and methodical in my pedagogy, that perhaps I was implicitly sending the message that some of the more existential science we covered (global phenomena like climate change and ocean acidification) were these just more facts to learn on the way to exam success. I thought maybe the planet wasn’t in a crisis at all… After all, why else would I be so calm about it? Working as a Science Teacher is a privilege, but also a great responsibility. Perhaps another reason I struggled was because of guilt. To quote Naomi Klein; “Climate change is intergenerational theft”. Shouldn’t I be discussing how this makes my students feel? Shouldn’t I be showing more anger at the path we are choosing to follow? Shouldn’t I be doing everything in my capacity to open their eyes to these issues and encourage them to alter the course we’re taking? Luckily for me, in 2006, Al Gore released a ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, a documentary film about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming and the science of climate change. (Quick heads up – ‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’ will be in theatres July 28, 2017, and whilst I am here, you should also watch Before The Flood, November 6, 2016) To quote Naomi again; “The safety and habitability of our shared home is intensely emotional terrain, triggering perfectly rational feelings of loss, fear and grief”. Yet, despite these occasional emotionally charged narratives, climate discourse is often a clinical affair, weighed down with statistics (but yes we still need them!) and political jargon. Even in the sunshine, collecting data to be made into statistics can be an unengaging affair! Unfortunately, the tone of scientific discourse often fails to capture the feeling of what we stand to lose. Casting my mind back I remember when I first watched this passage from Al Gore I cried. (video link through text); “You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.” It made me realise that sometimes we need to go beyond statistics, and harness emotions if we are to communicate a real sense of importance. Ever engaged with the humble seagrass meadow! Seagrasses have been termed the ‘ugly ducklings of marine conservation’ ecosystems and there are enormous stakes of losing these productive carbon sinks and fisheries powerhouses. I have previously written that the loss of seagrass meadows is a carbon time bomb and we have even tried to link our science to what we think people care about… “For the love of cod, let’s save our disappearing seagrass” I’ve been quoted before stating that it is the people we love and care about that depend on seagrass and have tried to phrase this in the simplest way I know how; “So many coastal fishing communities are dependent on coastal health. To put it simply, if there are no baby fish, there are no adult fish and if there are no adult fish, there is no fishing industry” I’ve even put my signature on the World Seagrass Association’s statement, and a ‘call for action’ to protect ‘the lungs of the sea’. However, despite all this, I still don’t feel that the emotion, the genuine care and passion for raising awareness of this ecosystem is getting across in my message. So, let me attempt a new tactic, one that moves beyond the statistics and the science. Let me simply declare a LOVE for the most underappreciated, unrecognised and unknown of marine ecosystems, the humble seagrass meadow. Seagrass you are Fulsnygg! Fulsnygg (Ugly-Beautiful) is Swedish, and is the feeling that somebody (or something) is attractive despite its lack of
Hello! My name is Sarah Jane Pope and this year I am running the London, Edinburgh and Stockholm marathons this year to raise money for Project Seagrass. I’ll get straight to the point… You can sponsor me here! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SJPopester I decided to take up this challenge because I wanted to help support Project Seagrass cause, and help the team on their mission to raise awareness of seagrass meadows. Over the last 3 and a half years I have learnt so much about these amazing ecosystems and I have been constantly impressed with the dedication these guys have shown. It has taken a lot of personal sacrifice to build a charity from scratch in your spare time! It’s incredible to see how Project Seagrass has grown, from being a small NGO based out of our living room (i’m RJ’s girlfriend), to being a registered charity in both England and Wales (1162824), and now in Scotland (SC0467) However, despite the great cause, it’s also a personal challenge for me. I have a point to prove to myself. Back in 2013 I was training for the Edinburgh marathon with RJ and his pals to raise money for WWF Scotland when on my final long run (the 20 miler) I tripped over a tree root and injured my Iliotibial band (IT Band) – gutted! So now I’m back fit again, and ready to push myself a for a good environmental cause! Back in 2013 I had to look on as the team raised funds for WWF I first announced this challenge back in November 2016, when the sun was shining and we were experiencing unseasonably mild Autumn temperatures. I was perhaps naively expecting training conditions to be similar to what they had been like when I was training before in the south-west (Bristol / Cardiff / Swansea), which although inevitably WET, were WARM (or mild at least)! However, this was not the case! Scotland can be impressively cold! On the east coast, we are sheltered from much of the precipitation, and so we do get days which are cool and crisp. On days like these it is almost a pleasure to be training… November was cold and crisp However, on other occasions, when it does rain / sleet / snow the thought of going for even just a quick 5-mile run doesn’t bare thinking about (although I begrudgingly do it anyway!). The snow can be beautiful, but it can also be brutal. Also, the romance of snow is utterly ruined, there is very little magic in running in a snowstorm, although sitting with a warm cup of tea or hot chocolate knowing that you’ve earned it go’s some way to convincing you that this was a good idea (even though you can’t feel your fingers and or your face). Anyway, I thought I’d write this quick blog as I’ve just passed a landmark in my training – the ½ marathon! On Saturday RJ and I ran 14 miles around Arthurs Seat and The Meadows and we’re both feeling good with where we are at… I’ll check in again, closer to the time, but in the meantime, sponsor me! SJ x If anyone, like SJ, has a desire to challenge themselves for charity then we are all ears! Simply contact us at info@projectseagrass.org
There’s an odd bunch of people with a strange sounding passion – a passion for seagrass. You’d think that anything with grass in its name might be boring, especially when compared to ecosystems like tropical rainforests, filled with birds of paradise or the vast savannas of Africa filled with elephants and migrating wildebeests. However, seagrass ecosystems hold a few surprises that might make you change your mind. 1. Seagrass buffers against ocean acidification. Seagrass uses carbon from the surrounding water in order to photosynthesise and grow. As the carbon is taken out of the water and into the plant, the seas acidity decreases. This may protect coral reefs from bleaching and allows corals to have calcification rates that are up to 18% higher. Seagrass helps coral to thrive. 2. Seagrass protects our coastline. As well as helping coral reefs, seagrass also helps to stop our coastlines from being eroded away. Even when a turtle has got the munchies and nibbled the seagrass right down to the roots, or a storm has come through ripping some of the meadow away, then seagrass still protects our coastlines despite its damaged state. The remaining stumps and strands reduce the energy crashing on to our shore lines by slowing wave speeds. A green turtle munching on seagrass. 3. It’s still sensitive! Just because seagrass keeps giving when damaged does not mean it is surviving. Seagrass restoration is a tricky and slow process. The conditions must be just right- when the surrounding bed is damaged the water will be flowing faster, taking with it any seeds or new shoots, as soon as the bed is damaged a vicious cycle of degradation begins. Scars in a meadow as a result of boat propellers ripping up the seagrass. 4. Endangered animals call seagrass home. When our local shop has sold out of iceberg lettuce, then we can try something else green and leafy, maybe some spinach. A lot of seagrass residents don’t have this luxury however, for dugongs it’s munching on seagrass or a rumbling tummy. Many endangered seahorse species can relate to this reliance on seagrass as it’s their one safe home where they can blend in and hide in the scenery. A grazing dugong. 5. It helps put food on our plates! When a meadow is in good condition then it provides protection for juvenile fish, including those which are commercially important. The Walleye Pollock, for example, is one of the world’s top 10 most landed fishery species and it commonly relies on seagrass to be a safe haven for it’s young to grow big and strong before ending up on our plates. For some communities the plant itself is also an important food source; the Seri grind the seeds to make a porridge like substance and others eat a part of the plant called the rhizome, raw. Florida Bay scallop growing strong in a seagrass bed.
