We have been focused on seagrass habitat loss in the UK since 2013.
Working on researching and monitoring seagrass meadows to learn how we can best protect and restore them.
Take a look at some of the work we have carried out in the past.
2013 – Community Seagrass Initiative launched; a citizen science project focused on raising awareness of declining seagrass habitats in Southwest England.
2014 – Heritage Lottery Fund awarded our charity £474,000 for a 3-year project to focus on seagrass conservation.
2017 – We established important working relationships with botanical laboratories and gardens to support our seagrass research.
2019 – Used our extensive knowledge of seagrass meadows to partner in scientific publications documenting the conditions of seagrass in the UK and what we can do to protect them.
2019 – Developed the first successful seagrass Advanced Mooring System in the UK.
2019 – Supported Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship for overseas travel to understand the issues faced in the decline of tropical seagrasses.
2019 – Funded the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST)’s community seagrass project, engaging the local community of Arran in the monitoring and filming of South Arran Marine Protected Area’s seagrass beds.
2019 – Became the restoration partner in the £2.5 million EU Life Recreation ReMEDIES habitat restoration project, as well as developing the educational element of the programme.
2020 – Developed our seagrass cultivation laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium and filled it with a test batch of 60,000 seeds. The laboratory is now used to cultivate up to 360,000 Zostera marina plants a year. We also collected a further 700,000 seagrass seeds which were looked after in our seagrass laboratory.
2020 – Awarded £250,000 from the Green Recovery Challenge Grant to demonstrate large scale restoration techniques in South Devon, with the aim of recovering the benefits to fisheries and adding to carbon sequestration.
2021 – Hundreds of volunteers joined us throughout the year to pack 26,000 seagrass seed bags and 2,200 seedling bags, which were then planted in Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. In the same year we also collected more than half a million seeds in the Solent, to replant in areas where seagrass has been lost or damaged.
2022 – A total of 20,000 seagrass seed bags were packed this year by hundreds of volunteers and planted into the seabed just west of the Beaulieu River Estuary, in the Solent, covering a whole hectare.
2022 – Launched Blue Meadows, our biggest and most ambitious seagrass project yet, delivering a holistic approach to seagrass protection, regeneration and restoration.
2022 – Established our first protection and regeneration site in Falmouth, placing marker buoys in 3 key areas to protect over 20 hectares of seagrass meadows, equivalent to around 20 football pitches.
2022 – A summer of seed collection for the restoration efforts in the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Project. In total, we collected around a million seeds, from the Solent, Looe and Helford!
2022 – We deployed 160 seagrass pillows into our restoration site at Jennycliff Bay, bringing the total coverage of pillows on the seabed to date to 2,300 square metres!
2023 – Placed 23 marker buoys to highlight the presence of 6 seagrass beds across Torbay, protecting over 65 hectares of sensitive seagrass meadows. That’s all seagrass beds in Torbay protected!
2023 – Seagrass restoration continues! We deployed 100 pillows into St Mary’s Bay with the support of ScottishPower Foundation, and another 100 pillows into Jennycliff Bay as part of the ReMEDIES project.
2024 – We have protected the seagrass in Studland Bay! With the help of Studland Bay Marine Partnership, we have placed 22 of our marker buoys on the seaward perimeter of the Voluntary No Anchor Zone to protect 100 hectares of seagrass!
2024 – The last seagrass pillow deployment in the EU Life Recreation ReMEDIES project saw us plant around 3,500 healthy seagrass plantlets into the restoration site at Jennycliff Bay!