Following its World Ocean Day launch, everyone from scientists to conservationists, and from community groups to environmental funders now have access to an innovative new knowledge sharing platform: SeagrassRestorer. Launched by an international partnership comprising some of the world’s leading seagrass scientists, SeagrassRestorer provides a unique opportunity to learn not
Between the 11th and 13th November 2025, scientists, conservation professionals, practitioners, and community groups from across the UK will converge in Cardiff for the 2025 UK Seagrass Symposium (UKSS). Hosted by Project Seagrass, the event will build upon the success of the inaugural UKSS (hosted by Ocean Conservation Trust and
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
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
Following its World Ocean Day launch, everyone from scientists to conservationists, and from community groups to environmental funders now have access to an innovative new knowledge sharing platform: SeagrassRestorer. Launched by an international partnership comprising some of the world’s leading seagrass scientists, SeagrassRestorer provides a unique opportunity to learn not just from each other’s restoration successes but, perhaps more importantly, each other’s restoration failures. Seagrass meadows have faced significant losses across the globe. In response to this, a growing number of initiatives are underway in an attempt to restore these vital underwater ecosystems, with projects taking place in diverse locations ranging from temperate estuaries to tropical lagoons. But seagrass restoration is not as simple as planting trees on land. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to restoring seagrass meadows” said Dr Benjamin Jones, Chief Conservation Officer and Co-Founder of Project Seagrass, one of the two architects of the platform. While some projects have achieved notable success, most scientists agree that the majority of seagrass restoration projects fail to meet their intended goals. Dr Richard Unsworth, Chief Scientific Officer at Project Seagrass said: “One of the challenges facing the scientific community is the lack of reporting on unsuccessful projects, which, for the most part remain unpublished, undocumented, or inaccessible to the broader scientific and conservation community. Ultimately, if we aren’t sharing what isn’t working, we risk groups making the same mistakes over and over again. Mistakes that ultimately waste time and financial resources. We’re hoping SeagrassRestorer will directly address this challenge via a centralised portal where seagrass restoration projects can be catalogued, allowing us to learn from, rather than replicating, each other’s failures.” Seagrass Restoration using the DIS method in Thorness, Isle of Wight. Credit Francesca Page Seagrass Restoration using the transplant method in Thorness, Isle of Wight. Credit Francesca Page Leading the development of SeagrassRestorer is international NGO Project Seagrass who are working on a host of seagrass restoration projects from experiments into different planting methods across sites in Wales, Scotland and England, to trials of passive restoration approaches—those aiming to facilitate natural recovery—such as the installation of environmentally friendly boating infrastructure in locations including the Isle of Wight. In Indonesia, and alongside community groups, Project Seagrass has also led much broader passive restoration approaches aimed at tackling sedimentation and poor water quality—the main drivers of seagrass loss—by restoring trees along riverbanks. While Project Seagrass has achieved success across a number of projects, active planting of both seeds and adult shoots in a number of locations have failed—failures that have been prevented from being shared due to a lack of a suitable platform. SeagrassRestorer fosters global collaboration and knowledge sharing within the global seagrass restoration community like never before. Users can share and download information on where, when, and how seagrass restoration projects have been undertaken, and, importantly for those planning their own projects, what methods have worked, and what methods have not. Dr Jones said: “SeagrassRestorer has the potential to become a science-backed seal of approval for seagrass restoration projects. If we’re serious about rebuilding marine life, we need to be prepared to share our knowledge and innovative approaches. This isn’t a competition.” SeagrassRestorer represents a crucial step forward in the field of seagrass restoration. Filling a critical gap by providing an open-access, interactive, and continuously updated portal that records details of seagrass restoration projects across the globe. By centralizing data, promoting transparency, and fostering collaboration, it aims to accelerate progress in marine habitat restoration and contribute to the resilience of coastal ecosystems. Founding partners of SeagrassRestorer include Project Seagrass, Swansea University, Deakin University, Universiteit Stellenbosch, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Universidade do Algarve, Universitas Hasanuddin, Göteborgs universitet, Dalhousie University, and CQ University.
Between the 11th and 13th November 2025, scientists, conservation professionals, practitioners, and community groups from across the UK will converge in Cardiff for the 2025 UK Seagrass Symposium (UKSS). Hosted by Project Seagrass, the event will build upon the success of the inaugural UKSS (hosted by Ocean Conservation Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust in 2023) with the Cardiff conference anticipated to welcome over 200 delegates to the Welsh Capital. Attendees will participate in a programme of inspiring talks from keynote speakers, panel discussions, and workshops led by some of the world’s leading seagrass scientists. The event, which will take place at Techniquest in Cardiff Bay and is sponsored by the Crown Estate, will drive forward discussions and actions to protect and restore UK seagrass, alongside providing an invaluable networking opportunity for attendees to share knowledge on seagrass science, policy, and management. Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, CEO of Project Seagrass and Chair of Seagrass Network Cymru said: “I’m delighted to be bringing this conference to Wales in 2025. This is an opportunity to connect science, policy, and action by bringing together those working on seagrass from across the UK. Interest in seagrass has grown substantially in the past few years and this is a forum to share and enhance our collective knowledge to advance towards a healthy and connected UK seascape.” Seagrass meadows play a critical role in keeping our oceans healthy and stocked with food and are important allies to tackle the global climate and biodiversity crises. Yet the current condition of seagrass in the UK is generally poor due to multiple pressures, including poor water quality, and direct physical damage from moorings and anchors with extensive loss having occurred since the 19th Century. The collective action and collaboration fostered by the UK Seagrass Symposium is key to addressing the challenges that UK seagrass currently faces. Dr Benjamin Jones, 2022-24 President of World Seagrass Association said: “Given the increasing challenges that seagrass meadows globally face, I see this UK Seagrass Symposium as a crucial opportunity to build a diverse, equitable, and collaborative UK seagrass community to tackle seagrass decline. We need to both learn from others and share our successes and failures; we simply do not have the time to wait, we need to collaborate, and we need to collaborate now.” A UK Seagrass Symposium hosted in the Welsh Capital is fitting following the Welsh Government’s endorsement of a National Seagrass Action Plan for Wales earlier this year. The Plan presents a blueprint for action over the next five years to achieve a vision where Welsh seagrass meadows are supporting marine biodiversity, vibrant communities, a sustainable economy, and making a valuable contribution to the climate emergency response. Registration for the UK Seagrass Symposium will open later this month. To discuss sponsorship opportunities contact: ben@projectseagrass.org.
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 interviews that asked what habitats they used and which they preferred. Benjamin Jones, director of Project Seagrass and PhD student at the Department of Ecology Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, says: “Seagrass was the most common habitat used for fishing. Nearly half of all households we talked to preferred fishing in seagrass over other habitats such as coral, mangroves, open ocean, mud and rock for example. This was surprising because most people think of reef fisheries as the key tropical small-scale fishery, but we show that its actually engagement in seagrass fisheries that are much more characteristic of households.” When the researchers asked the fishermen why they preferred seagrass, they expressed a general feeling of reliability: seagrass meadows always provide large catches and fish and invertebrates are always found there. This is likely due to the ecological role that seagrass meadows play for fish. They provide valuable nursery habitats with lots of places for fish to hide and grow which means that there is often a high abundance of fish present. The study also revealed that 3 in 20 people across the region were reliant on seagrass meadows as their fishing ground and did not fish anywhere else. The research from households in 147 villages also revealed that reliance on seagrass meadows was strongly influenced by household income: “Household income had two different effects. On one hand, poorer households were less likely to own motorboats. These were reliant on seagrass as they were unable to fish elsewhere, seagrass is close to shore and easy to access without a motor. On the other hand, wealthier households were more likely to own certain types of fishing gear that incentivized them to use seagrass due to high rewards and low effort requirements. These were static fishing fences that don’t require a fisherman to be present” says Benjamin Jones. Study co-author and fellow Project Seagrass director Leanne Cullen-Unsworth, says “Our results highlight the need for empirical household scale data for management of seagrass meadows. People use and value seagrass for many different reasons so safeguarding seagrass is vital to ensure that all people, all of the time, have equitable and equal access to the resources seagrass provides.” The study was a collaboration between scientists from Stockholm University, Project Seagrass, Swansea University, Uppsala University, Hasanuddin University, among others. Open Access paper: Jones, B.L.H.; Unsworth, R.K.F.; Nordlund, L.M.; Eklöf, J.S.; Ambo-Rappe, R.; Carly, F.; Jiddawi, N.S.; La Nafie, Y.A.; Udagedara, S.; Cullen-Unsworth, L.C. Dependence on seagrass fisheries governed by household income and adaptive capacity. Ocean & Coastal Management 2022, 225, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106247.
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 on the most suitable for the hosting country (e.g. tides, holidays, etc). After the first ISBW in 1993, it was decided that meetings were to be held at two year intervals, swapping between developed and developing nation locations if possible. ISBW14 was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but has been postponed to 2022 in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 meeting (ISBW14) will be held in Annapolis (Maryland, USA) from 7 – 12 August 2022, in conjunction with the World Seagrass Conference (WSC2022) (https://isbw14.org/). Past ISBW venues included: ISBW1 (1993) Japan – KominatoISBW2 (1996) Australia – Rottnest IslandISBW3 (1998) The Phillippines – Quezon City and BolinaoISBW4 (2000) France – Corsica!SBW5 (2002) Mexico – EnsenadaISBW6 (+Conference) (2004) Australia –Townsville and Magnetic islandISBW7 (2006) Africa – ZanzibarISBW8 (2008) Canada – Bamfield, Vancouver islandISBW9 (+Conference) (2010) Thailand – Phuket and Trang ProvinceISBW10 (2012) Brazil – BuziosISBW11 (2014) China – Sanya, Hainan ProvinceISBW12 (2016) United Kingdom – Nant Gwrtheyrn, WalesISBW13 (+Conference) (2018) Singapore To read about the history of the ISBW series, see Coles, R., Short, F., Fortes, M. and Kuo, J (2014) Twenty years of seagrass networking and advancing seagrass science: The International Seagrass Biology Workshop Series. Pacific Conservation Biology 20(1): 8–16. (http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/302/paper/PC140008.htm), and Hind-Ozan, E.J., Jones, B.L., 2017. Seagrass science is growing: A report on the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop. Marine Pollution Bulletin. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.08.017The International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW) is an official activity of the World Seagrass Association Inc., and WSA Inc. plays a guiding role, and assists the Convener/Organising Committee when requested. Members or organisations/institutions who are interested in submitting an expression of interest to host the 15th International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW15) in 2024 should send a letter by email to Len McKenzie, Secretary, World Seagrass Association Inc., at wsa.secretary@gmail.com no later than May 31, 2022. Please include the name and complete contact information including address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of the member or organisations/institutions expressing interest. Letter should clearly state the country location and supporting organisation. Dot points covering the information required are acceptable. The WSA may require more detailed information in future before a final decision. If you require additional information or any enquiries, please email wsa.secretary@gmail.com
