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
 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 another path of destruction.
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
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
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 at marine professionals, as well as the public, and hopes to champion sustainability, so that it is not just an act or one off event, but becomes a permanent way of being. Outputs from the festival are concrete, with the most innovative scientific and environmental projects presented at the festival (linked to the preservation of Posidonia oceanica) having the opportunity to be financed through a collection made during by Save Posidonia Project. The projects are to be evaluated by a technical committee of high national and international recognition and the objective is to involve all individuals, companies and national or international organisations in raising awareness to take action in the conservation of such a critical ecosystem to the Balearic Islands. To participate in the festival all events must apply sustainability measures based on basic principles. Before the celebration of the event the promoters featured had to submit a plan to reduce the impact on the environment and respect the well-being of local people. However, this isn’t the first festival of this kind, indeed the Posidonia Festival has been active in the Mediterranean for nearly 10 years. Originating in 2008 on the island of Formentera (Spain), the festival has been hosted fifteen times in six different locations (Carloforte, Formentera, Mallorca, Santa Margherita Ligure, Sitges, Tavolara). Most recently Posidonia Festival was held in Mallorca with Three days of activities on Art, Nature and Sustainable Tourism have been held in Palma and Deià. The event will be held again next year. As an International Ecofestival of Art, Environment and Sustainable Development. The festival is a space for dissemination of knowledge and practices that promote the protection of the natural coastal environment and, at the same time, an opportunity for sustainable development, culture and tourism. For us seeing these ‘festivals of seagrass’ taking place is incredibly positive, since it is through platforms such as this that we are able to communicate seagrass science to the public! We’ve already heard this year about how seagrass science is growing, and I have witnessed first-hand the dedication and enthusiasm of this small (but growing!) group of seagrass scientists during the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop that Project Seagrass hosted in north Wales last year. Also, for me personally, I am thrilled to see the spotlight on the seagrass Posidonia oceanica since this species is critical to the sustainable provision of seafood in the Greek islands where I have made many friends. I find it deeply upsetting to witness the ecological, social and economic ramifications of degraded Posidonia oceanica meadows. The species has been estimated to be worth €190 million per year to Mediterranean fishing and the loss of this foundation species could result in both a loss of income and food security that these islands have long enjoyed. Keep up the good work #TeamSeagrass and together we will be the change.
 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 another path of destruction. Puerto Rico, the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos, and many other Caribbean islands have suffered what have been described as “apocalyptic conditions”. When the world talks of the tragic and devastating consequences of severe hurricanes, the focus tends to be on the land, and the people who live in affected communities. Indeed, nearly 30 people have been reported killed, while Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez has said that the hurricane has set the country back by “20 to 30 years”. We see images of toppled trees, torn off roofs and severe flooding. But marine environments can be also badly affected by hurricanes, with potential long-term effects. The force of hurricane winds, and the resultant tides and waves are so strong that both plants and animals are ripped from the sea floor leaving lifeless rubble and sediment behind. Hurricanes have a washing machine effect: they mix up coastal sediments with knock-on effects for marine life. Suspended matter left floating in the water column limits the amount of sunlight that reaches marine habitats and so reduces growth and recovery. Meanwhile in shallow coastal environments, debris, sewage and run-off continue to flow in to the sea long after the hurricane has passed. Human dependency on the sea  The fishery for Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) is a major source of income to many around the Caribbean. The devastation of coastal environments, particularly seagrass meadows, can also result in long-term losses of the benefits that humans receive from them, such as fisheries support or coastal protection. Damage to these ecosystem services consequently impacts human well-being, because people can no longer rely on them for their livelihood and food supply. Some of the most severely affected areas of the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean – Florida, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the British Virgin Islands – all house extensive seagrass meadows. These shallow water marine habitats support valuable lobster fisheries, as well as shrimp, conch, and finfish fisheries. Seagrass also stabilises sediments and protects the white sand beaches that attract so many tourists to the region. Previous hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons (weather events which are essentially the same but have different names depending on where the storm happens) across the globe have shown the severe negative effects they can have on these vital seagrass meadows. The seagrass plants are ripped up or buried under sediments, leading to their suffocation. The extensive associated murky water leads to widespread loss of seagrass, as was seen in the years that followed hurricane Katrina hitting the US. Initial indications from the Everglades in Florida show that seagrass destruction in the wake of Irma is extensive, with large piles already being washed far onshore. This should ring alarm bells for Caribbean fisheries, as hurricanes Katrina and Rita led to losses in the seafood industry that reached billions of dollars. The Caribbean spiny lobster fishery business alone is worth more than US$450m, and directly employs 50,000 people. Healthy seagrass provides the best fishing grounds with the greatest revenue, and the recent hurricanes have the potential to decimate this. Environmental impact But this is not just about money. Seagrass loss also threatens marine biodiversity and the health of charismatic species. After a severe cyclone in Australia in 2011, turtles and dugong starved due to the damaged meadows. In addition, seagrass is a marine powerhouse, which stores vast amounts of carbon in meadow sediments. When the seagrass is removed, this carbon is released back into the environment.  Caribbean spiny lobsters depend on clams they find in seagrass. Hurricanes have always been a part of life in tropical seas. The destruction they cause and their recovery have been observed throughout human history. What is alarming now, however, is the apparent increased frequency and intensity. The already poor state of the Caribbean marine environment restricts the ability of habitats such as seagrass meadows and coral reefs to recover from the effects of severe storms. Poor water quality and over-fishing, for example, promotes the overgrowth of algae, preventing recovery. With repeated hurricanes occurring over time periods that are insufficient for recovery to occur, this will only get worse. The severity of hurricanes Irma and Maria are a wake up call. We need a fundamental shift in how marine environments are protected to enable long-term sustainability for the food and income they provide. Many locations in the Caribbean, for example Puerto Rico, have ineffective marine protection rules and so destructive practices continue unchecked, meaning that when a disaster does occur, the environment is unable to recover. Although local actions against climate change are difficult to achieve, it is possible to manage river catchments to improve water quality, and focus on small scale immediate actions, such as implementation of marine protected areas to limit immediate and direct damage to coastal resources. Coordinated small scale actions will ultimately help enhance the resilience of the Caribbean Sea, and make sure that the environment can better recover from any future extreme events. Richard K.F. Unsworth, Research Officer (Marine Ecology), Swansea University; Benjamin L. Jones, Research Assistant at the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University; Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, Research Fellow, Cardiff University, and Lina Mtwana Nordlund, Researcher in coastal environmental sciences, Stockholm University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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 and Dolphin Trust (HWDT), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Marine Conservation Society (MCSUK), RSPB Scotland and Capturing our Coast in the Wildlife Marquee. It was a super day with 1728 visitors coming onto the Pier to enjoy the festivities throughout the day! In Scotland Project Seagrass have been working alongside Scottish Wildlife Trusts to raise awareness of Eelgrass (Zostera marina) which is one of the trusts ‘priority species’. In April 2016 it was hoped that our move to Scotland would herald ‘A New Dawn For Scottish Seagrass’ and we spoke then of our ambition to engage with Scotland’s coastal communities and begin the much needed process of mapping Scotland’s seagrass meadows. Community events such as this are the ‘bread and butter’ of that vision. They are also some of the best craic you can have! Our ambition for ‘Seagrass meadows to be saved around Scottish coasts’ has to start with people, and raising awareness of this most productive of coastal ecosystems. Having the opportunity to talk with folk about what seagrass is, where it is found and how we can map it is central to our strategy of raising awareness amongst the public. The Scottish Wildlife Trusts ‘Wildlife Marquee’ was a fantastic platform for engaging with people both from the local community, and those visiting the area. On a personal note it was brilliant to see the ‘Have You Got The Bottle?’ campaign present in the tent. The organisation is campaigning for a Scottish Deposit Return System for drinks packaging (Basically you would pay a small deposit when you buy cans and bottles and get it back when they are returned. Easy.) As someone who wants to reduce litter entering our marine ecosystems then this seems to me like a super solution to a huge problem! Anyways, back to the seagrass! When we arrived in Scotland we wanted develop and network of like minded individuals who could help volunteer their time and energy towards our common goal. This is the Scottish Seagrass Network. This weekend SJ (of the “ThreeBeforeThirty” blog posts) and Lauren (our West of Scotland rep) joined me in Ullapool to help deliver the SEA education (Seagrass, Education and Awareness) on the Saturday and explore the Marine Protected Area on the Sunday. By land and by sea the Wester Ross Marine Protected Area is simply stunning! First, we explored Loch Broom and the Summer Isles (towards the North-East of the MPA) and then afterwards Little Loch Broom, Gruinard Bay and Loch Ewe (towards the centre and South-West of the MPA). In Gruinard Bay there is a known seagrass meadow which forms part of the Scottish Wildlife Trusts North-West Highlands Snorkel Trail which has nine sites along the north west highlands coast around Ullapool, and recently a further six sites on the Isle of Harris. The Summer Isles are home to seals, seabirds and the majestic White-tailed eagle. If anyone is interested in assisting Project Seagrass in mapping the extent of seagrass distribution around these trails then please upload your photos via our Seagrass Spotter app and if you would like to find out more information about Scotland’s Seagrass Meadows then check out the Scottish Wildlife Trusts website. Slàinte RJ
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 of Project Seagrass’ blog last July, we’ve enjoyed making marine science matter at IMCC4 last August, right up to outreach at Ullapool Pier Day (blog to follow) just this last week. This blog is thus a celebration, and a review, of our 4th year as an officially seagrass focused entity! 2016 August So first up, and in a break from our usual seagrass focus, myself and Edd Hind-Ozan were involved in an innovative project with “Oceans Online” at IMCC4. The idea was to run a workshop which focussed on “Bringing fishermen to the table” at academic conferences. The aim was to achieve this using live stream “Bambuser” technology. Whilst this is a simple concept, I believe it is one that is long overdue. At marine conservation focused conferences and workshops, the importance of stakeholders is discussed frequently, whether it’s from developing solutions for community led MPA’s or improving fishing quotas – but the stakeholders are all to frequently absent from these high-level discussions. Oceans Online marked a pretty important development in making conferences accessible to all, especially considering a lot of commercial fishermen (from both developed and developing countries) cannot attend conferences because they are fishing! It was a privilege to be part of the beginning of a movement that looks to cultivate the ways marine science is conducted, shared and communicated online. Oceans Online will be returning on the 29th June 2018 for IMCC5 in Malaysia – so save the date! Next up in August was the development of Scottish Seagrass Network and the official registration of Project Seagrass as a charitable entity in Scotland. As we entered our fourth year as an NGO, we thought this was a logical step for us, especially since within north-west Europe, approximately 20% of seagrass meadows are found within Scottish waters. Within north-west Europe roughly 1/5th of seagrass meadows are found in Scottish waters. September In September myself and SJ managed to get over to the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban for some ‘Seagrass Spotter’ citizen science. The site we went seagrass spotting was Dunstaffnage Bay at the entrance to Loch Etive on the West Coast of Scotland. Beyond the eelgrass meadow already known to SAMS there was not much to report. Meanwhile, in Swansea, Wales the team from HQ in Cardiff were busy running a Seagrass Education and Awareness stand at the British Science Festival. The festival’s began in 1831 in York, England and have run through to this festival in Swansea which marked the 177th meeting of the British Science Association. Project Seagrass at the British Science Festival in Swansea, Wales. October This month was clearly ‘the big one’ in our calendar, and what a brilliant event the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop turned out to be. Our intern Evelyn Furness remarked on just how friendly “Team Seagrass” turned out to be and I think all delegates were impressed at both the diversity and quality of seagrass science that is now taking place globally. I’m sure that ISBW13 in Singapore will be an absolute cracker of a conference! The 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop was held at Nant Gwrtheyrn, Wales. November You’d be forgiven for thinking that November would be a prime opportunity to take our foot off the gas after the efforts that went into hosting ISBW12, but conversely, we were really keen to build on the momentum and enthusiasm generated at ISBW12, especially the passion shown for our smartphone app Seagrass Spotter. For this reason, we put all our efforts this month into ensuring that Seagrass Spotter was developed and enhanced from being a smartphone application that was only available in the British Isles, to one that was functional across Europe, and in particular, that it be made accessible to as many delegates as possible from across the Mediterranean region. Seagrass spotter was made available to users in the Mediterranean Sea November was also the month that SJ announced she would be running “Three marathons before I turn 30” in a bid to raise vital funds for Project Seagrass. December Building on our traditional Christmas advent calendar, this year we created a “virtual” calendar for you all to enjoy. Behind each door of our calendar is one of #SantasSeagrassSecrets introducing you to the weird and wonderful uses and functions of seagrasses across the world. 2017 January The new year started with a reason to celebrate! Participation in SeagrassSpotter had rocketed since its expansion and we now had over 400 seagrass sightings from across the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea! What’s more, we had the good news that Andrew Lewin was keen to support Team Seagrass on his Speak Up For Blue website, with each of the plenaries from ISBW12 to be shared from his website. The first of these was Ocean Optimism on the Future of Seagrass Meadows on January 3rd but he continued to share one plenary / blog combo through until March (Check them out at www.speakupforblue.com). Each January I also take the time to head down to the BETT show as I seek inspiration for the best ways for us to improve on our SEA (Seagrass, Education and Awareness) programme. Towards the end of the month, Ben attended a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss the final developments to “The Dugong & Seagrass Research Toolkit”, which we’ll discuss later. Richard headed to Puerto Rico, where he led the Swansea University Tropical Marine Ecology field course. Here he used the opportunity to test the capabilities of Seagrass Spotter in a tropical environment and paved the way for scientific seagrass spotting by conducting the activity along transects. February In February we were out and about in Cardiff talking all things seagrass at Cardiff University’s “Speak Week” March March is Seagrass Awareness Month and so a busy time of year for anyone involved in seagrass science and communication! This month Ben headed to Mexico as part of a ‘Land 2 Coast’ project with Cardiff University. 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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 to celebrate World Environment Day! World Environment Day occurs on 5 June every year, and is the United Nation’s primary medium for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. The theme for World Environment Day 2017 is ‘Connecting People to Nature – in the city and on the land, from the poles to the equator’. It seems a poignant theme for me this year, having just ran these last two weeks through some of the finest examples of cities that are connected to nature anywhere in the world. Edinburgh boasts the most green space of the UK’s largest cities. At 49.2%, almost half of the Scottish capital boasts parks and green land, and Sweden’s capital Stockholm, with its 1.5 million inhabitants, is today recognised as one of the greenest and most beautiful metropolitan areas in Europe. There is so much green space in Stockholm that you don’t always know you are in a city! In Edinburgh a great effort has been made by the Scottish Wildlife Trusts and the City of Edinburgh Council to create, restore and connect green areas of the city in order to make the city more attractive and biodiverse. This concept has been touted as a ‘Living Landscape’ which focusses on ‘managing land at the ecosystem-scale to benefit people, wildlife and the economy’ A successful Living Landscape is one with a network of healthy, resilient ecosystems supporting all forms of life. Ecosystem health is restored and society benefits fully from the vital services that ecosystems provide. It’s my impression that this is pretty much the same idea that Project Seagrass has for coastal ecosystems globally… The idea that we need to protect and restore the seagrass in our ‘Living Seascapes ’ to ensure that all the benefits that the coasts provide for us are maintained! I’m proud to be signing off today having been successful in my #ThreeBeforeThirty challenge, and in having raised both funds (much needed!), and the profile (hopefully) of Project Seagrass too! It was certainly a challenge! Running the Stockholm Marathon was hard because I only ran the Edinburgh Marathon six days ago! But the journey to raise the profile of seagrass doesn’t stop here. Richard Unsworth has taken on the baton and is running the Snowdonia Marathon in October! If you have any fundraising ideas, or ways that you think we can raise the profile of seagrass meadows then I know the Project Seagrass team are all ears! Just send an email to hello@projectseagrass.org It was so good to have the support of Richard and Sarah for the final marathon! Remember, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy… (or sporty!) even just talking about seagrass makes a difference! So this is me, signing off… I know any last minute sponsorship would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! – http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SJPopester Over and out! SJ x
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
