Press Releases

Press Releases

Press releases from the Project Seagrass media team, sharing insights on our latest research and news from our programmes.

Press ReleasePS Updates

Seagrass app inspires a rise in citizen science across the globe

Internationally renowned charity Project Seagrass is marking it’s tenth anniversary by re-launching its citizen science website and mobile app SeagrassSpotter which enables anyone and everyone to engage with the seagrass meadows on their doorstep or anywhere else in the world, whether it’s there now or it once was. SeagrassSpotter was established in 2016 and allows people to upload point data showing the presence of seagrass with photo evidence. Since its initial launch, it has gathered over 7,000 sightings of seagrass from over 3,500 users across 105 countries and has recorded 45 species of seagrass. It’s relaunch will include new features,…
Bethan Thomas
July 28, 2023
Press Release

Ben Jones appointed as President of the World Seagrass Association

Dr Benjamin Jones, Chief Conservation Officer at Project Seagrass has started his two-year term as President of the World Seagrass Association (WSA). He steps up to the role having been elected at the WSA Annual General Meeting (AGM) in December 2022. Prior to this he’s served on the WSA Steering Committee for a number of years. “I’m so thrilled to take on this challenge alongside the management committee consisting of Vice President Emma Jackson, Treasurer Yi Mei Tan and Secretary Len McKenzie, as well as the Steering Committee who will share collective responsibilities in determining and delivering the strategic direction…
Benjamin Jones
February 8, 2023
Press Release

Why saving the world’s seagrass is part of the most important to-do list in the history of humankind

“The downward trajectory of the world's seagrass meadows must be reversed if we are to fight the planetary crisis” say leading seagrass scientists. School of fish in the seagrass, Komodo, Indonesia. (Credit: Matt Curnock / Ocean Image Bank) The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have recently been described as “the most important to-do list in the history of humankind”. Scientists from Project Seagrass and Swansea University have this week published a unique review that demonstrates how this “To-Do List” of Sustainable Development Goals provides a blueprint for achieving the net recovery of seagrass ecosystems. Conserving and restoring seagrass meadows contributes…
Bethan Thomas
August 4, 2022
Press ReleaseResearch

Seagrass meadows are reliable fishing grounds for food

A new study shows that seagrass fisheries provide a reliable safety-net for poor fishermen, since they perceive those habitats to maintain large fish catches over time. Surprisingly, even more so than coral reef fisheries, which people normally associate with small-scale fishery. Seagrass meadows are routinely used as a fishing habitat across the Indo-Pacific region to sustain millions of households by providing fish and other animals for food and income from fishing. A new study in Ocean and Coastal Management investigated how and why households use seagrass meadows across Cambodia, Tanzania, Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the Indo-Pacific region by conducting…
Benjamin Jones
June 15, 2022
ConferencesPress Release

Want to host the 15th International Seagrass Biology Workshop?

The World Seagrass Association Inc. invites expressions of interest from members and interested organisations/institutions who would like to host the 15th International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW) in 2024.The International Seagrass Biology Workshop series is a meeting of research scientists, students and coastal environment managers focusing on global seagrass issues, improving seagrass knowledge, developing networks and advocating for seagrass protection/conservation.ISBWs are often 2-3 day workshops with an additional day for a field trip. Participants are generally limited to 100 however this is highly dependent on the venue. The timing for ISBWs has mostly been late September, although the timing is dependent…
Bethan Thomas
April 28, 2022
Press Release

Mosquito nets: Are they catching more fishes than insects?

Mosquito nets designed to prevent malaria transmission are used for fishing which may devastate tropical coastal ecosystems, according to a new scientific study. The researchers found that most of the fish caught using mosquito nets were smaller than a finger and potentially collect hundreds of individuals. Malaria is a serious global health issue, killing nearly half a million people every year worldwide. Aid organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested in solutions to solve the crisis such as distributing hundreds of thousands of bed nets to protect people from mosquito bites carrying the virus. "Distributed mosquito nets…
Benjamin Jones
November 11, 2019
Press ReleaseResearch

Waste Not, Want Not. Discards that could feed those in poverty

At least 7.3m tons of fish (usually dead or dying) are thought to be discarded each year from marine fisheries around the world. But these estimates come mostly from observations of large-scale industrial fisheries. Limited attention has been paid to small-scale fisheries, which are assumed to have low discard rates – some estimate as little as 3.7% total catch, compared to more than 60% for some large-scale shrimp trawlers. Small-scale or artisanal fisheries – for which there is no universal definition – are generally considered more sustainable than their large-scale industrial counterparts, but there is increasing evidence that shows this is not always the…
Benjamin Jones
February 26, 2018
Press ReleaseResearch

Sewage and livestock waste is killing Britain’s seagrass meadows

Britain’s seagrass is a refuge for numerous species of fish, stabilises sandy beaches, and helps to lock away the carbon which humans produce. The meadows that surround the country’s coast have been called the “canaries of the sea”, due to their sensitivity to a changing environment. And like a canary in a coal mine, their health can be used as an indicator of the condition of coastal areas. We know that the seagrass meadows surrounding the UK are in a perilous state of decline, and our recently published research has now uncovered one of the biggest causes. Our study suggests that a major…
Benjamin Jones
February 15, 2018
Press ReleaseResearch

Seagrass meadows key fishing ground globally

Fishing in seagrass occurs around the globe; if there is seagrass (and people) there is fishing. Still, the nature and extent of fisheries in seagrass is poorly understood. It is a prerequisite for natural resource management to understand resource exploitation, therefore we decided to investigate this further. Seagrasses are plants that grow in the shallow ocean. The seagrass attracts many different types of animals, to live, forage, or seek shelter. These animals are collected by humans for subsistence (food), commercial and recreational purposes. Across the globe the reasons for fishing differs, it is more common to fish for recreational purposes in…
Editorial
November 16, 2017