After years of trialling different techniques to restore seagrass meadows, we have developed a purpose-built deployment device for use by commercial divers.
Introducing our innovative device, that we have fondly named HMS OCToPUS!
Hydroseeding on land is a planting process to spread seeds rapidly, particularly to help fight erosion. Taking inspiration from this, we sought to develop Hydro Marine Seeding (HMS) as a technique to inject seagrass seeds directly into the seabed to restore, on scale, efficiently. So, we commissioned a local product design team (Absolute Product Design Ltd) to engineer a mechanism based on a caulking gun, named OCToPUS (Ocean Conservation Trust o Pressurised Underwater Seeder).
The spring loaded handheld device is designed for our divers to use on the seabed. It has a 1.5 litre chamber, filled with Zostera marina seeds, suspended in a specialised carrying media, one OCToPUS unit can be used to inject 2,000 seagrass seeds in under 20 minutes, in just one dive, by one diver.


“We focus entirely on subtidal seagrass, and with that there are a variety of additional challenges that come with working below the waves. So, we are really excited to be at this stage with our new device and starting to see how it could revolutionise the way OCT goes about restoring this vitally important habitat. We are so grateful for the support of one of our key partners, Ørsted and the engineers at Absolute Product Design, who have been fundamental in the development of this innovative device.”
Amelia Newman, Seagrass Aquaculture Technician Lead
Using this new device, our Ocean Habitat Restoration team have already completed 1.5 hectares of restoration effort in the Solent Maritime, and 2 hectares in Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. That’s around three and a half football pitches in size! The team will continue to monitor the restoration sites, but preliminary results are positive, showing vital regeneration of the seagrass beds.
If you are interested in supporting our innovative seagrass conservation work then please consider donating using the button below.