Seagrass Ocean Rescue Volunteer Profile: Neil
September 19, 2024 The Seagrass Ocean Rescue North Wales programme relies on the commitment and enthusiasm of local volunteers. We spoke to regular volunteer Neil about his experiences of volunteering as part of the programme. Volunteer Interview Tell us a little bit about yourself: I grew up in North Wales, then moved around a lot during a career in the automotive industry. After Covid, there was an opportunity to step out and do something different, so it was time to do things I wanted to do rather than had to do. How did you first get involved with the seagrass restoration community project? I’d seen the team operating in Porthdinllaen , read about it, and started to preach about it to anyone that was unfortunate to be in hearing range! Then there was a stroke of luck and I managed to inflict myself upon the boat crew for a few days. What are your hopes for this restoration work? That the word spreads, that more people who don’t mean to negatively affect the environment can learn not to, and that I can keep visiting the areas that we are developing and planting to see them flourish and provide a starting base for more wildlife to move in. It’s great to see how quickly nature can respond, given a chance. I’ve learnt that it’s very subtle changes we make that can help or hinder the natural environment. What inspired you to get involved, what drives your commitment to this cause? I’d just semi-retired, had wandered past the boat team working in Porthdinllaen, did some reading, started to tell others about it, then it was a lucky break to be involved in one of the boat teams. Then it just got out of control from there really! I go snorkelling, boating, and diving and I get frustrated when I see the natural environment being needlessly abused, so this is just one way to try and stop that. The amazing areas of the world provide lots of fun, inspiration and happiness for so many people, sometimes the consequence is pressure on the very thing we go to see, by providing more of those areas then it’s good for everyone. What does it mean to you to spend time in nature, what do you feel nature provides you with? It’s great to see how quickly nature can respond, given a chance. I’ve learnt that it’s very subtle changes we make that can help or hinder the natural environment. What seagrass restoration activities have you taken part in? So far, planting both seeds and shoots, harvesting new seeds and monitoring. Learning from the different team members, chatting with ambassadors and meeting other people that are getting involved. What part of this restoration work are you most proud of? I think it’s the planting, because when we go back to monitor progress and after only a few months we see that nature has already started to move in, then that’s a good thing. The Seagrass Ocean Rescue Project is managed by WWF, in partnership with Project Seagrass, the North Wales Wildlife Trust, Pen Llŷn a’r Sarnau Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Swansea University. The project is made possible with support from funders that include the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Moondance Foundation. If you would like to volunteer as part of the project contact volunteers@projectseagrass.org Principal Funders Partners
Project Update: Restoration Forth August 2024
September 3, 2024 Content Team Restoration Forth aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oysters into the Firth of Forth, to create a healthier coastline for people and nature. Find out more about the project here. Restoration Forth August Fieldwork | Seagrass highlights from Orkney The seagrass team are not long back from Orkney, where they spent just under a month conducting this year’s seagrass seed harvest as part of the Restoration Forth August fieldwork. Many snorkel sessions were conducted to harvest seed baring reproductive shoots to further drive our restoration trials here in the Forth. Despite the fair-weather conditions and ample snorkel sessions the team have returned with slightly less material than what was collected last year. However, this should not prohibit our restoration ambitions next spring. Whilst in Orkney the team were able to deliver a range of community events, which included participating in this year’s Stromness shopping week. MSPs Ariane Burgess and Liam McArthur joined Restoration Forth’s community snorkel sessions in Orkney where, along with members of the local community, they met the team and learned about how projects like Restoration Forth aim to restore nature and drive future restoration. Increasing knowledge amongst elected representatives about the importance of these habitats is an important part of highlighting the need for the Scottish Government to bring forward legislation to protect and restore Scotland’s nature. In addition to the seeds collected from Orkney, the team will be visiting the Moray Firth. In the first week of September the team will meet up Mossy Earth and Moray Ocean Community to organise an intertidal seagrass pick. This community and knowledge exchange intends to bring our projects closer together and further our collective knowledge. Intertidal seeds gathered from the Moray coast will provide insights into whether there are differences in germination rates between subtidal and intertidal seeds. Newhaven Oyster Mural is going ahead! We are pleased to announce that the Oyster Mural planned for the Heart of Newhaven’s Anchor building has been granted planning permission. Thank you to everyone who was involved in workshopping ideas for the design, including Victoria Primary school. Natasha Russell, Edinburgh based illustrator and mural artist, has created the design to incorporate many of the local species that people expressed an interest in. The mural aims to engage passers by with the wonders of local biodiversity. Captured within the oyster shells in the design, there are scenes and stories that represent the cultural importance of oysters in the Forth, including the fishing of, and release of oysters into the water. It celebrates the oyster’s return to the Forth and their key role within the local ecosystems, whilst acknowledging the deep local history with the oyster fishing trade. The mural will be painted in September. Come along to the Doors Open Day at the Heart of Newhaven on the 28th September at 11.00, to see the unveiling of the mural.
Fieldwork notes from our summer seed collections
September 2, 2024 Content Team Read our fieldwork notes from our summer seagrass seed collection: North Wales Seed Collection A brilliant start to our annual seed collections, with summer finally arriving right on time! The weather has been fantastic, with underwater visibility not too far off 10m, and not a drop of rain so far… Here’s hoping it holds out until next week! It’s been a very busy start, but here’s just a few of the highlights: Day 0.5 – Day 1 | Saturday 27th – Sunday 28thAfter arriving in good time on Saturday afternoon and launching Gwen with no troubles, the team spent Sunday morning moving all our equipment into Cabin Gryff and Gwen, before setting up the temporary seed storage tanks. We then went through a few rescue refreshers. The dive team set up the keep nets on the RNLI buoys, which will be home to all the seeds collected by both teams during the trip. The team practiced diver recovery drills, before finishing the day with a first seed collection dive The snorkel team went out seed collecting, but having missed the morning Low Tide, learnt the hard way that duck diving for seeds is rather tiring! Day 2 | Monday 29thThe snorkel team, led by Amel, started the day as they will throughout the trip, with seed tank water changes! They then had a far more successful seed collection snorkel, bagging plenty of seeds. Charles has also started his VR footage collection using the 360 camera, capturing some fantastic images of the meadow. Fingers crossed some fun species ‘take the bait’. Meanwhile, Manning has been sampling sites as part of his Masters project, with the help of Richard, who has been out flying the drone round the LLyn, taking advantage of the clear skys! The dive team completed three meadow health surveys, which will help us assess the current state of the Porthdinllaen meadow, and monitor any potential impact of our seed collections going forward. We were joined by Katie Dubois, a lecturer at Bangor University, who helped with our afternoon seed collection dives. The meadow is bursting with seeds, so we should be set for a good collection! Day 3 | Tuesday 30thThe snorkel team had their best collection yet today, and were in the water battling the cold for a good 4 hours! Another big haul of seeds! The dive team ticked off half the mechanisation surveys, which will help wrap up the mechanisation project. We then went seed collecting, whilst dropping down Charles’s VR camera to catch some footage. Day 4 | 31st JulyWe arrived early to set up our stand ready for our FIRST volunteers. We also welcomed our Ambassador Miranda Krestovnikoff. Day 5 | 1st AugustOne quick water change later and we’re back in the water! We started by taking the VR camera out to get a series of snorkeling shots through and coming out of the seagrass meadow before placing down for an hour-long shot. We then proceeded to pick seeds joined by Leanne and Miranda. Once again, a perfect dive, with pristine waters and life abundant. To end our day off we did a quick evening session with the VR camera. It was an amazing shoot with many fish species and a perfect way to end the day. Day 6 | 2nd AugustToday we rested. Day 7 | 3rd AugustAfter an excellent rest day we proceeded to begin our week of volunteer seed collections. We started the day by transporting volunteer divers off before getting everything prepared for the snorkel volunteers. The day went brilliantly, with all snorkelers/waders returning, smiling and with happy faces. We chatted, and met so many fantastic people! Day 8 | 4th AugustOnce again, Amel and Emma were up bright and early to transport volunteer divers before joining the rest of the day. We joined WWF for a Philanthropy Day, a day for all of our donors and backers. The day started with a quick meal before returning to set up all equipment and stand ready to take our donors for a quick snorkel. All came back with smiles and a successful day all around. The dive team been out every day for seed collections, seed collections, seed collections! Jake Davies and Neil Shone have joined throughout, and we had Dr Katie Dubois (Bangor University) with us again on Sunday! Day 9 | 5th AugustA windy and rainy storm has scarpered all snorkelling activities! We’ve all but finished the mechanisation trial surveys (there’s a few buoys missing so we may have to return and drop shot lines on the coordinates). The best news is there are still lots of seeds coming up after every dive! We’ve all but filled three keepnets (the total we managed last year), so hopefully we should be well on target for 1.5 million by the end of the trip! We’ll be out to install another keepnet tomorrow. Volunteers divers have also been joining since Saturday, with great feedback from all. Day 10 | 6th AugustToday was the first of our snorkel and wading volunteering sessions and it went really well! We were joined by 51 volunteers including WWF, Iwan Rheon, the Crown Estate, North Wales Wildlife Trust (with their Youth Forum and Interns) alongside lots of Project Seagrass volunteers! BBC joined us and interviewed Leanne and Rich! The dive team carried out two more dives (for me at least) with lots of seeds collected. We are into our fourth keepnet of seeds, which exceeds last year’s total already, and we’re hopeful the reproductive shoots are bearing more seeds than previous years too. Day 11 | 7th AugustCharles, Andrew, and volunteer Antje headed to Porthdinllaen this morning to capture more footage for the VR Project while Andrew and Corinne headed to Hafan y Mor to install a seagrass information sign. Another successful snorkel and wading volunteering session delivered in the afternoon/early evening. Over 30 volunteers joined us including representatives from the Crown Estate, WWF, and North Wales Wildlife Trust. BBC Radio Cymru joined
Seagrass Ocean Rescue Volunteer Profile: Bob
August 12, 2024 As our 2024 seagrass seed collection in North Wales draws to a close we spoke to Seagrass Ocean Rescue volunteer Bob Pethers about his experience of volunteering as part of the project. Tell us a little bit about yourself: I’m Bob Pethers, originally from London but have lived and worked in North Wales for 40 years. I have taken early retirement from the NHS and currently volunteer with North Wales Wildlife Trust and Project Seagrass. How did you first get involved with the seagrass restoration community project? At the end of a Shoresearch rocky shore survey for the North Wales Wildlife Trust we were given a short presentation on seagrass restoration and I realised immediately that this combined my concern for the health of our seas with my enthusiasm for gardening! I ended up on a seagrass monitoring course run by Project Seagrass, and the rest is history. What are your hopes for this restoration work? That it makes a difference to the health of our seas, and it will! What inspired you to get involved, what drives your commitment to this cause? I jokingly say that I’m involved in seagrass restoration purely out of self interest as one of my hobbies is sea fishing, and healthy seagrass meadows lead to healthy fish populations! In reality I’ve always been concerned about the environment and nature and considered myself an environmentalist from when it really wasn’t fashionable. Looking back I realise we could have done more (hindsight is a wonderful thing), but still proud of our efforts to find peat free compost 30 years ago! Now I have the opportunity to make a difference around my local shores, and the thought of thriving seagrass meadows in the future drives me forward on those cold and rainy spring tides. What does it mean to you to spend time in nature, what do you feel nature provides you with? Being in nature enhances my physical and mental health, nothing can beat being in the moment. What seagrass restoration activities have you taken part in? After agreeing a planting area with Project Seagrass, I started off collecting fragments at Porthdinllaen and planting these (after cleaning off other lifeforms and soaking in fresh water for 24 hours) at Traeth Crugan. This has continued with various tweaks to the methodology through research and discussion and evaluating the success rates. Now I concentrate on the big spring tides and planting on mass to maximise success, and on the last survey this year’s plantings had an encouraging 56% success rate. Inevitably I was talking to the Project Seagrass team a lot, and ended up helping with the seed planting (sacks, seed balls and injection), monitoring, and have just completed the circle by snorkelling at Porthdinllaen for seagrass seeds! What part of this restoration work are you most proud of? I’m most proud of all the other volunteers I meet over the course of the year. Their enthusiasm is both inspiring and heartwarming. I have the opportunity to make a difference around my local shores, and the thought of thriving seagrass meadows in the future drives me forward on those cold and rainy spring tides. The Seagrass Ocean Rescue Project is managed by WWF, in partnership with Project Seagrass, the North Wales Wildlife Trust, Pen Llŷn a’r Sarnau Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Swansea University. The project is made possible with support from funders that include the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Moondance Foundation. Principal Funders Partners
Project Update: Restoration Forth | July 2024
August 12, 2024 Content Team Restoration Forth aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oysters into the Firth of Forth, to create a healthier coastline for people and nature. Find out more about the project here. Seagrass – the outcome of monitoring Back in March, 128 volunteers helped Restoration Forth plant more seagrass seeds along the Firth of Forth. The team and volunteers have been keeping a close eye on their growth. A HUGE thank you to all the passionate and dedicated volunteers for your time! Although we don’t have the full picture yet, fewer shoots have emerged than we hoped, so we are working to understand why. We know the nature of restoration projects can be challenging, but what we’ve learned through this process has been incredibly helpful. We’ve also been trialling the transplantation of dwarf eelgrass cores – by transplanting cores (seagrass with the sediment) from established meadows to adjacent bare sediment. With this method we are hoping to extend the current seagrass area in the Firth of Forth. This year we have transplanted 400 cores, and last year we have transplanted 480 cores. This method seems to be working well, and we’ll be monitoring them more closely in coming months. Keep your fingers and toes crossed! Oysters We recently launched our new citizen science resource and are running some training events in our oyster citizen science activities in the coming weeks, including some family friendly sessions aimed at getting young people involved in citizen science. You can find the activities and all the information on how to take part on the webpage here under ‘Help Restore the Firth of Forth’. As we start to near the end of summer it is time to think about our next oyster deployments. We aim to release a further 10,000 oysters into the Firth of Forth in Autumn, so keep an ear out for opportunities to be involved in our biosecurity days soon.
Project Update: Restoration Forth | June 2024
June 27, 2024 Content Team Restoration Forth aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oysters into the Firth of Forth, to create a healthier coastline for people and nature. Find out more about the project here. Orkney seagrass trip Next month the seagrass team will be departing for their annual seed collection trip in Orkney. Following a productive planting season in March 2024, the team will be returning to Kirkwall to collect Zostera marina seeds that will be planted in March 2025. Restoration Forth employs a non-destructive method for collecting seagrass seeds, shoots are hand-picked by snorkellers and divers through a selective process to ensure donor meadows are not over picked. This year, Project Seagrass are working with Heriot-Watt University and local scallop divers to collect seeds from subtidal seagrass meadows. Prior to seed harvesting, the team conduct extensive surveys of the donor meadows to ensure that the harvesting of seeds will not cause a significant effect to the health or size of the meadows. The deployment of a dive team will increase the yield of seeds collected this year, by accessing subtidal parts of the meadow which are not usually accessible through snorkelling. Join us for snorkelling sessions at Finstown! Restoration Forth are organising seagrass snorkel sessions this July and August to showcase the rich diversity of marine life that live in these amazing habitats and to demonstrate how we collect seagrass seeds. Further details can be found here. Photo credit: Raymond Besant Photo credit: Raymond Besant Oyster Citizen Science We are very excited to announce that the new oyster citizen science activity booklet is now live! Our new booklet contains activities for everyone around the Firth of Forth to get involved in contributing to oyster restoration. You can find the activities and all the information on how to take part on the webpage here under ‘Help Restore the Firth of Forth’. The Restoration Forth team, with the help of volunteers, will be beach hopping around East Lothian, Edinburgh and Fife with the activity booklet next week. Please do pop by and say hello! We will be at Port Seton Links and Fisherrow Sands, Musselburgh, on Friday 28th June and Cramond Beach and Silver Sands, Aberdour, on Saturday 29th. Timings and more information about the events can be found here. Oyster Observer Guide Update Thank you so much to those of you who have completed and submitted an Oyster Observer Guide survey. This information will help inform which sites will be most suitable for oyster restoration work. We so far have surveys from the following locations: Fife: Kingsbarns, Ravenscraig Edinburgh: Cramond East Lothian: Seton Beach, Yellowcraig, Morrisons Haven, Belhaven Bay, Longniddry (Bents 1, 2 and 3) Fisherrow Sands and Musselburgh beach. If you have completed a survey but are still to submit your results, you can do so here. Likewise, if you would like to get involved, the Oyster Observer Guide and instructions on how to take part can be found here. Photo credit: Caitlin Godfrey Climate Resilience survey WWF want to learn more about the climate resilience impacts of their projects. They are running this very short survey to find out more about the impact Restoration Forth has had on you, and your thoughts about local community and climate resilience. It should only take about 5 minutes to complete, and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Scotland Loves Local gift card. Click here to start the survey (closes on the 8th July 2024). Goodbye 100 species The inspiring 100 Species exhibition project is now finished, after having been displayed at Heart of Newhaven to the Scottish Seabird Centre and, finally, the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. Edinburgh Shoreline held a little thank-you party in the Anstruther Museum for all the Fife contributors on 7th June. During this the winning paintings from a local schools art competition, organised by the Museum and inspired by the 100 species exhibition, were displayed. A total of 480 children participated and, through their engagement, learned all about Restoration Forth, oysters and seagrass. The Newhaven Community Choir performed, included one song specially written as a homage to Restoration Forth. Look out for videos on the Edinburgh Shoreline YouTube channel – uploading soon. In Anstruther there were 2,070 visitors to the exhibition at the Museum. We are really pleased about the interest this project has raised – through the researching and making of responses to individual species and the huge interest generated through exhibiting them around the Forth. Several of our contributors have already engaged with or signed up for future oyster cleaning events, started regular beach events and expressed interest in future citizen science opportunities. Photo credit Karen Chambers.
Fieldwork Notes from our May fieldwork
May 31, 2024 Content Team Read our Project Leads’ fieldwork notes from May: Solent Fieldwork (Anouska Mendzil, Solent Lead) Solent fieldwork update: Day 1 Myself and Manning arrived to the Isle of Wight around 14:00 and met Becky. We had an afternoon of preparation including labelling pins and mini-buoys, sorting kit, sorting data forms and configuring the mini-buoys. Solent fieldwork update: Day 2 We monitored this years restoration plots at Priory Bay – all transplants remain in place and all plots with seeds (which we saw cotyledons growing last time) have fully germinated to become seedlings. We were joined by Liz, a volunteer, but also a Liz Earle staff member, making us a team of 4. We installed the mini-buoy and associated HOBO logger. I’m not convinced the existing seagrass meadow at Priory Bay is looking in a particularly healthy state, so I think there is monitoring requirement for this, there are however reproductive shoots present with seed development under way. We will be up on the early morning tide (5am) for Mannings project (data collection). Solent fieldwork update: Day 3 We started the day with 4:30 am beach sampling at Seaview for Mannings project, and managed to get some drone imagery of the meadow at Seaview and mooring scars. We also had a lovely surprising visit from a small spotted cat shark. We paid a visit to Cowes Island Sailing Club and met the secretary and dropped off some leaflets in anticipation for the club talk in November. The new Mermaid Garden (by Mermaid Gin) is part of the sailing club which looks great, so quite a nice full-circle collaboration and partnership developing between the three of us. Flo and Jo made it to us and we headed out for round 2 of monitoring at Priory Bay including the Solent Seascape Monitoring protocol. We also managed to download the HOBO data and get a few drone snaps here too. Solent fieldwork update: Day 4 We monitored our restoration planting sites at Thorness on the evening tide, installed the HOBO logger and Mini-Buoy, undertook Solent Seascape Monitoring and Manning managed to get another site for his project. Encouraging to see that the transplants from the donor meadow had reproductive shoots developing at both planting sites despite not having them when we picked them. Still lots of germination at Thorness but would say a bit slower and patchier than at Priory Bay Solent fieldwork update: Day 5 We did a bit of a recce at Ryde to show Flo and Jo the area for the seed picking. Currently on the ferry over to Southampton and will make our way over to Beaulieu. We utilised the evening tide to undertake monitoring of all previous experimental planting plots – the mud at Beaulieu is as glorious as ever and even got the better of a few of us. No growth in any of the plots, and fragments seem to have also disappeared. Most of the plot pins remain in place. We downloaded the HOBO logger data. Solent fieldwork update: Day 6 Myself, Flo and Becky headed for the early morning tide to do a recce of Lepe seagrass meadow. Surprising how inshore the meadow was and how different the sediment was there. Seagrass reproductive shoots are already maturing in this location and the meadow looks really healthy. Many fishers utilising the seagrass meadows this morning – they were after bass. Much of the day is cleaning, re-packing, data input and preparation for tomorrow’s engagement event. Myself and Manning are heading home shortly and Jo, Becky and Flo will attend tomorrow’s Family Conservation Awareness Day in Bucklers Hard. South and West Wales Fieldwork (Emma Fox, South and West Wales Lead) South and West Wales fieldwork update: Day 1 Five of us headed to Llanelli, to collect 75 Z.noltii cores from the donor meadow. The core collecting was easy and lovely in the heat. The struggle came when we were transporting the 75 transplants (which equates to 75 kgs) the mile’s walk back to the van with a slightly wobbly trolley. Nevertheless, the team pulled together and we managed well for 80% of the way, until we crossed paths with a cockler in a truck, who kindly offered to take the crates for the last part! We have since secured access to the meadow with a truck and so tomorrow, when we repeat the operation, it will be a lot smoother! We found we still had plenty of time (very lucky to have a massive tidal window) and decided to push on and head over to our planting site. There the bamboo canes which Celia and I prepped two weeks ago were still in place and we planted out half of the cores before the tide finally started to come in. Ended the day with a debrief and ice-cream. South and West Wales fieldwork update: Day 2 Today consisted of planting out the last of the cores in the remaining plots. It was nice that we’d halved the work for ourselves because it was also an opportunity for some stakeholder engagement, which meant we had plenty of time for chatting. A good number of people popped down, including Judith (Carmarthen Bay & Estuaries European Marine Site Officer) who helped us out with the transplants, Paul (Carmarthen Conservation Co-ordinator) who is going to help us tomorrow with his truck. Another debrief over ice cream to wrap up, before heading back to HQ to wash kit / prep for tomorrow. South and West Wales fieldwork update: Day 3 Very similar to day 1, however we had a lift to and from the meadow which was amazing, much much needed to transport the transplants. We also put out a HOBO logger into the Llanelli planting site, before returning late to the warehouse and started prepping for DIS tomorrow. Emily meanwhile brought the Z.marina seeds across from the nursery to the warehouse, along with the Z.noltii which has been in the quarantine tank since August. This is staying in it’s holding tank until
You asked, we listened. Our latest updates to SeagrassSpotter
Things have been busy at Project Seagrass with lots of development on SeagrassSpotter. Since our last major update, we have been working to enhance the ways that SeagrassSpotter works for its users. We’re excited to share that our latest update includes many of the features you have been asking for, and a few more. One of the six main global challenges to seagrass conservation is that the status of many seagrass meadows is unknown, and up-to-date information on status and condition is essential for conservation. While we’re making great strides in using drone technology and satellite imaging for seagrass mapping, new technologies still depend on “ground-truth” data, which is where SeagrassSpotter comes in. This is how individuals can make lasting contributions to seagrass conservation. With this in mind and coupled with the requests you’ve made, we’ve released a new version of SeagrassSpotter. We’ve developed a completely new exploration and filter function, allowing you to select data from certain species, countries, and more. We’ve also made it easier for you to download SeagrassSpotter data and generate reports on the things that matter most. Finally, we’ve added a completely new upload function for absence data; places where seagrass isn’t found or used to be found but now isn’t – data that will help us and other transform habitat suitability modelling. Take a look at our feature recaps below to learn about each one in depth. Data exploration We understand the importance of being able to view the data you collect – you can see in real time how you’re contributing to the bigger picture. Data exploration is the first step of data analysis and is used to explore and visualize data to uncover insights from the start or identify areas or patterns to dig into more. Using interactive filtering, users can better understand the bigger picture and get to insights faster. You can filter data by any of the parameters that SeagrassSpotter collects (e.g., algae, fishing activity, flowering) and display this either in grid format or map format. Report generation In addition to our new explore tab, we’ve added new report generation features that allow you to download data that is filtered by any of the parameters that you select. Only want seagrass data from the Philippines? No problem! We understand the importance of being able to easily download data and have worked to remove barriers to this. All SeagrassSpotter data is free to access, and you don’t even need to sign up for an account. Open Access data will make conserving seagrass easier for everyone. Absence data It’s imperative that we know where seagrass is growing, but to advance seagrass restoration, it’s also important that we know where seagrass isn’t growing, and why. Whether it’s been lost, or simply was never found there in the past, our new absence data function allows you to add data on other habitats and substrates such as mangroves, coral, seaweeds, rocks, sand and mud. This will make habitat suitability modelling easier and more efficient, while also adding greater ground truthing needs for remote sensing. New languages We understand that for SeagrassSpotter to be a global tool, it needs to be accessible to all, no matter what language you speak. Over the past few years, we’ve slowly been adding additional languages to increase usability in many of the countries we work. Alongside this, we’re developing an app within SeagrassSpotter called SpotLang that provides a means for anybody to help curate new languages with us. As it currently stands, SeagrassSpotter is available in nine languages; English, Welsh, French, Portuguese, Swahili, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malay and Tetun. If you are interested in contributing to new languages, please get in touch.
Nursery News Vol. 20
By Emily Yates
Nursery News Vol. 19
By Emily Yates To donate to our Aviva Community Funds and find out more, click the links below: Making marine conservation more accessible Saving the worlds seagrass Developing the Project Seagrass nursery