Studland Bay is home to Dorset’s most extensive seagrass meadow and has now been protected by our Blue Meadows marker buoys!
Studland Bay already benefits from a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) and a Voluntary No Anchor Zone (VNAZ). So, we are delighted to have worked with Studland Bay Marine Partnership (SBMP) to install our Blue Meadows buoys too!
We have installed 22 of our distinctive yellow marker buoys, along the seaward perimeter of the Voluntary No Anchor Zone, which will protect the seagrass meadows within the VNAZ. This means around 100 hectares of seagrass (that’s equivalent to around 100 football pitches) has been protected – a great effort! By marking the meadows to clearly define the area to water users, and giving people the tools to make informed decisions, we hope human disturbance can be minimised. This will allow the seagrass to recover and naturally regenerate.
The buoys are also a great way to help people on the shore, be they beach goers or walkers on the coast path, see that there’s a valuable habitat right there under the water. Therefore, allowing people to better connect with seagrass and other habitats in our Ocean.
There are also 87 eco-moorings within the VNAZ which are used as an alternative to anchoring, meaning people can still enjoy stopping in the beautiful, shallow waters of Studland Bay. We are delighted to have worked with Studland Bay Marine Partnership to compliment this existing scheme. With our marker buoys signalling clearly where people should not be anchoring, and the eco-moorings providing people with an alternative, seagrass meadows and people can thrive together!
“We’re so excited to support the SBMP; it’s great to see all these different groups come together for a common goal, conserving a special place. The Ocean Conservation Trust is really pleased to do its bit for the MCZ by helping make these marker buoys a reality and support people to enjoy nature and protect seagrass. Together with what we’ve done to make seagrass data visible to users through the savvy navvy app, this is a really important step to help the recovery of the vital seagrass in Studland.”
Andy Cameron, Conservation Projects Manager, at the Ocean Conservation Trust
To find out more about our work to protect and restore vitally important seagrass habitats, visit our Blue Meadows website using the button below.