At Solent Events, we’ve been hearing great things about the restoration of seagrass in our local area and felt compelled to highlight this important work.
Seagrass plays an important part in the fragile marine ecosystem as it provides breeding grounds for many of our fish stocks as well as rare marine life such as seahorses and stalked jellyfish whilst also locking in large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere, binding it into the sediment. It can also improve water quality and assists in stabilising the sea bed to help prevent coastal erosion.
Today, seagrass is considered critically endangered and is an EU Red Listed habitat due to the damage regularly caused to the slow-growing beds from boaters, walkers and fishermen. The meadows are threatened by anchoring, mooring and launching of recreational boats, as well as trampling from walkers and bait collectors.
Various projects are working to reduce damage to existing seagrass meadows whilst others are addressing the introduction of new areas. Cowes Harbour Commissioners are working with ReMEDIES led by Natural England in partnership with the Royal Yachting Association to protect areas in the Medina River Estuary for future generations. ReMEDIES recently collected more than half a million seeds from healthy seagrass meadows in Osborne Bay, Yarmouth and Bouldner (North Coast of the Isle of Wight).
Volunteers have been busy bagging up these seeds in small pouches that are taken out to sea and distributed over the seabed in specific areas. The bags degrade within weeks and release the seed that hopefully goes on to grow into a healthy plant and start its important work.
Yarmouth Harbour (Isle of Wight) are trialing 2 types of Advanced Mooring Systems as part of a 5 location project across the South Coast. These moorings, provided by Seaflex and Stirling Systems, will replace 2 existing chain moorings that can damage seabed habitats. We look forward to hearing the results and wish this trial every success.
The Ocean Conservation trust are playing a major part in the overall project and their strapline “To protect nature, you need to start with people” is all too true! This organisation are working on many marine conservation projects to ensure that our oceans are protected for generations to come. If you would like to make a valuable donation to help them continue their amazing work, click here now.
Picture credits : Feature image Mark Parry, Ocean Conservation Trust – other images kindly also provided by The Ocean Conservation Trust
