SEAGRASS OCEAN RESCUE: NORTH WALES
SEAGRASS OCEAN RESCUE: NORTH WALES
The Seagrass Ocean Rescue: North Wales project aims to plant common eelgrass, Zostera marina, over an area of 10 hectares across North Wales.
It is currently the largest active seagrass restoration project in the UK and is pioneering seagrass restoration methodologies.
PARTNERS
FUNDERS
Bringing life back to our oceans is a team effort. We’re proud to work with a fantastic team of partners and local communities to support our work in North Wales to support existing seagrass meadows and restore that which we have lost.
Seagrass seeds are collected from a healthy donor meadow in Porthdinllaen, processed in aquaria (where the organic tissue surrounding the seeds is left to rot away naturally to allow seed drop out and collection), then planted in chosen restoration identified to be suitable for seagrass. We are trialling multiple methods of planting including hessian bags, dispenser injection seeding (DIS), clay balls mixed with seeds and transplanting.
Seagrass restoration is taking place as part of this project between 2022 and 2026; afterwards, there will be a monitoring phase to secure the future of healthy seagrass at the restoration sites in North Wales with continuous engagement and training of local stakeholders. In the spring of 2023, we planted in total 200,000 seagrass seeds across Pen Llŷn: 100,000 seeds at Carreg y Defaid, and 100,000 seeds at Pen-y-Chain. Seagrass has started to grow at both sites where we planted seagrass during this first summer, which we regularly monitor. In the coming years, we will scale this up to plant roughly 5 million seagrass seeds across North Wales, including new sites on Ynys Môn.
In addition to community engagement and hands-on seagrass restoration, our work is underpinned by scientific research. Through experiments in our lab, at our seagrass nursery, in the field, and through international knowledge exchange and collaboration, we continuously improve our knowledge and approach to restoring seagrass in North Wales and beyond.
Local communities are involved in every aspect of the project from site selection through to planting the seeds themselves.
In addition to community engagement and hands-on seagrass restoration, our work is underpinned by scientific research. Through experiments in our lab, at our seagrass nursery, in the field, and through international knowledge exchange and collaboration, we continuously improve our knowledge and approach to restoring seagrass in North Wales and beyond.
Local communities are involved in every aspect of the project from site selection through to planting the seeds themselves.
GET INVOLVED
Volunteers are a key part of this project and contribute to the restoration process through survey work, seed collection, seed preparation and bag filling, planting, and monitoring. Local volunteers are encouraged to get in touch via volunteers@projectseagrass.org.