Project Seagrass
“The climate and nature crises are two sides of the same coin – protecting and restoring carbon rich habitats like seagrass meadows is essential to address climate change and biodiversity loss.”
Introduction:
Arc is the Isle of Wight partner for Seagrass Ocean Rescue, a wide-reaching 3-year restoration programme led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Swansea University and the global conservation charity Project Seagrass. Launched in 2022, the initiative is trialling new methods of seeding and supporting new and existing underwater seagrass meadows in the Isle of Wight and Solent’s coastal waters. Through Arc, this successful and exciting collaborative effort has been co-designed and managed with the support of Island community groups and stakeholders, while the Project Seagrass team’s research and knowledge-sharing has made a meaningful contribution to the Island’s UNESCO Biosphere.
Donors to the project include Sky Zero, Carlsberg, Aviva and Liz Earle, along with other philanthropic donations. The Seagrass Ocean Rescue project works closely with other seagrass projects in the Solent including collaborative research with the Natural England-led ReMEDIES project and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
Around 12,500 people and numerous organisations, businesses and community groups have engaged with the project to date.
Seagrass, the extraordinary marine super-plant! Photos by WWF UK
What is Seagrass?
If you’ve ever explored west of Ryde Pier or Bembridge Ledges at low tide, you’ll have seen expanses of the Island’s seagrass meadows first-hand. Not a seaweed but a plant, seagrass is one of only a handful of underwater plants in the world, making the most of the light in shallow coastal waters to photosynthesise; a marine ‘pollinator’ that flowers and produces seeds. These meadows form a complex habitat for marine wildlife, providing a huge range of ‘services’… from refuge for juvenile fish to the provision of feeding beds for overwintering birds such as our Brent Geese. Crucially, seagrass captures and stores carbon, making it an amazing ally in the battle to combat climate change alongside biodiversity loss.
‘Seagrass meadows are critical habitats providing benefits that support the survival of every living thing on Earth,’ explains Leanne Cullen-Unsworth at Project Seagrass. ‘Seagrasses produce oxygen, clean our coastal water, absorb greenhouse gas emissions, and help to keep our ocean healthy which stabilises the climate —both global and local. Seagrass meadows have the capacity to capture and store large volumes of carbon. They therefore have real potential to contribute to the UK’s carbon emission targets if restored at sufficient scale. Seagrasses also help adaptation to climate change by reducing storm wave energy and so helping to protect our coastlines. They support and provide habitat for thousands of species of fish (including commercially important cod, pollock too), invertebrates, birds, reptiles and mammals and contribute to the livelihoods of millions of people. While up to 90% of our seagrass has disappeared in the UK, we’ve been surprised and excited to see that the Isle of Wight is still a stronghold.’
How we helped…
WWF commissioned Arc, right at the very start of things, to help scope the potential for seagrass restoration in the Solent, assess ecological suitability, as well as stakeholder and community interest and opportunities to embed ongoing engagement with its conservation.
Our 30 years of work across the Island, working across all sectors and with a particular focus on coastal communities, their economic, social and environmental challenges, meant that we were very well placed not only to identify locations but to build trust and establish constructive dialogue between the seagrass project and its host communities and stakeholders. Arc has been able to work as a ‘bridge’ organisation, connecting private interest, land ownership, public and civic priorities and learning opportunities through the medium of projects large and small. We have worked on landscape-scale HLF programmes, partnered coastal engineers on sea defence design work, with national infrastructure organisations on outreach and neighbourhood impact (for example Network Rail) and at the same time helped rural parish councils and local community volunteers to progress action in their neighbourhoods (including our Green Towns movement) – all in all, the perfect fit!
Arc’s remit was to:
Provide detailed stakeholder mapping regionally and locally for specified areas.
Ascertain socially and economically appropriate locations for seagrass restoration from those sites deemed ecologically suitable.
Acquire the support and input to project design of local stakeholders for the restoration and protection of seagrass in the long term,
Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy and plan for the project and support its implementation.
Outcomes:
Arc’s local knowledge and network meant that Project Seagrass were able to focus efforts swiftly on two specific locations we’d identified, Thorness and Nodes Point, with the brilliant bonus of Project Seagrass then securing the support of landowners and neighbours, National Trust and Parkdean Resorts. Arc’s work on saltmarsh restoration at Thorness has brought the Seagrass initiative into step with our ongoing EA and Natural England-funded conservation project.
As well as identifying ecologically suitable locations, accessible seagrass meadows that could host and engage the community were essential. Our Under the Pier rock pooling event, set under Island gateway Ryde Pier with its meadows of Zostera noltii and Zostera marina and all in sight of a busy town, became the inspiration and location for Project Seagrass volunteer sessions and corporate awareness days.
Arc proposed and co-produced a Seagrass Symposium for the Solent and Isle of Wight at Cowes Yacht Haven, securing charitable support from Cowes Waterfront Trust. The symposium in April 2023 was hosted by WWF with all the seagrass projects represented under the Biosphere banner.
The local press and regional TV have been hugely supportive of the campaign and Project Seagrass continues to keep them updated.
Community engagement to 2023 involved:
12,500 direct participants in Seagrass Ocean Rescue through talks, festivals, volunteer sessions.
Stands, activities, talks and outreach at our science and nature events, Discovery Bay and Talks Tent at Hullabaloo, Fort Vic Foray, Branstone Day; Rhythm Tree Festival, Wildheart Sanctuary Festival of Conservation, Winchester Science Centre’s Noel Turner Science Festival, IW Walking Festival.
Local authority and Town and Parish Councils, Harbour commissions, Solent Forum, Isle of Wight landowners, farmers and stakeholders, NGOs, business community, holiday providers, boat yard owners, community groups, youth activity providers, Outdoor Swimming Society, Community Action IW, IW Sea Scouts, carnival arts CIC, local schools, housing association residents, IW Natural History Society Recorders community.
Conclusion:
This fantastic project is taking place at such a crucial time in the creation of new partnerships for wildlife here on the Isle of Wight. The Island’s UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve is fundamental to these efforts and over 60% of the designation is in fact marine, taking in all of the Solent and reaching the Hampshire and Dorset coastlines. WWF UK and Project Seagrass’s great work to conserve and extend local seagrass meadows continues to contribute essential learning to the challenge of climate change adaptation and biodiversity loss as well as forging new and productive links between the Island’s coastal communities and its outstanding marine environment. It's been a real pleasure introducing Seagrass Ocean Rescue to the Island and we continue to support these excellent teams as and when they need us!
Partners: WWF UK, Project Seagrass, Swansea University
Project Partners: Natural England, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Ocean Conservation Trust