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Issues

CampaignsIssuesPS Updates

Dear Santa

Dear Santa, We have tried to be responsible people all year. We are really hoping that this year we get the thing we have always wanted – healthy and productive oceans. We know that people haven’t looked after the oceans from the first time they were given to us, and we also know that the climate is changing and this is making us all very concerned! However, at Project Seagrass we have a plan to do our bit to help them get better. To help us achieve our aim we would like the following for Christmas this year: • We’d…
Editorial
December 1, 2018
AwarenessCampaignsIssues

International Women’s Day 2018: A call to #PressforProgress in recognising the role of women in fisheries

Today on international women's day 2018 we collectively acknowledge and celebrate women's achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for Women's Rights and International Peace. Absolutely a day for shared and international celebration. Throughout history and across the world women have fought and continue to fight for equality. We are the individuals, mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, sisters, aunties and wives who support ourselves, our families, our friends, our countries and our planet for the most part with quiet affection and definitely not for reasons of recognition or wider acknowledgement. But it…
Benjamin Jones
March 8, 2018
AwarenessIssuesOpinion

What does the future hold for seagrass?

The savannahs of the seas – our humble seagrass meadows are in peril In its Green Seas episode, Blue Planet II introduced us to seagrass meadows. Scarcely touched upon in past media when compared to coral reefs, mangroves and even kelp forests, we learnt about the vast potential of these underwater grasslands to sequester carbon from our atmosphere through to providing habitat for charismatic marine life. But seagrass meadows are much more than this. Indeed, we would need a whole new landmark series to truly convey how vitally important these habitats are for biodiversity, people and the planet. Seagrass meadows…
Benjamin Jones
December 19, 2017
AwarenessEducationIssues

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 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…
Richard Lilley
October 13, 2017
AwarenessIssuesResearch

How hurricanes such as Irma and Maria can devastate the Caribbean marine environment

 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.…
Benjamin Jones
September 25, 2017
AwarenessCampaignsIssues

March – Seagrass Awareness Month

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…
Richard Lilley
March 7, 2017
AwarenessEducationIssues

Five surprising things about seagrass that you might not have known

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…
Editorial
February 2, 2017
AwarenessConferencesIssues

The 13th International Coral Reef Symposium – Bridging Science To Policy

The International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) is the primary international meeting for researchers who are focused on coral reef science and management. In fact, as a conference it has a similar ecosystem focus to the International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW) that we will be hosting in Wales this coming October. The Symposium, held in Hawai’i last week brought together over 2,500 coral reef scientists, policy makers and managers from around 100 different nations in a forum to present the latest research findings, case histories and management activities, and to discuss the application of scientific knowledge to achieving coral reef sustainability. Coral reefs…
Richard Lilley
June 29, 2016
IssuesPS Updates

Don’t let the UK become a fish out of water: For the sake of our seas let’s stay in the EU

Our oceans and coastal resources have never been more important or under greater threat. Marine biodiversity has rapidly declined in the last 40 years, so much so, that marine populations have almost halved during this time. The very marine habitats and biodiversity that help ensure we have food to eat and oxygen to breath are being degraded the world over. At the same time, marine litter is on the rise, and issues such as climate change place an increasing level of pressure on the ability of our oceans to remain productive. In the UK the marine environment provides enormous prosperity…
Editorial
March 29, 2016
Issues

International Women’s Day – “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” #pledgeforparity

Today, the 8th March 2016, is International Women’s Day. The UN’s International Woman’s Day theme for 2016 is "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality"; in addition, an independent campaign, separate from the UN, is being run by financial firm EY (with other corporate partners) which is organising events around a #PledgeForParity hashtag. Today is of course a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. Yet it is also a day to raise awareness of the need to urgently address gender inequalities, and take action to accelerate gender parity. In 2014, the…
Benjamin Jones
March 7, 2016