SEAGRASS seeds have been collected in The Solent to help the restoration of the important underwater plant.

Approximately 250,000 seagrass seeds were collected, to help seagrass restoration across the UK.

More than 50 volunteers joined 20 Project Seagrass staff this summer to collect seagrass seeds.

The effort came after a year of monitoring to assess the health of existing seagrass meadows around the Isle of Wight and trials to explore restoration potential.

Isle of Wight County Press: Volunteer team in Ryde. Picture by Ian Boyd.Volunteer team in Ryde. Picture by Ian Boyd. (Image: Ian Boyd)

The Seagrass Ocean Rescue project is a partnership between Project Seagrass, Swansea University and WWF working on the Isle of Wight to further understand the best methods for seagrass restoration through scientific planting trials which will help to inform future restoration projects around the UK.

Seagrass lives in the shallow, sheltered areas of coastline. It provides a home for thousands of marine species, helps to stabilise shores preventing coastal erosion, produces oxygen, creates cleaner water and captures and stores carbon.

It also provides a nursery habitat for commercially important fish such as cod and plaice.

Unfortunately, the UK has lost the majority of its seagrass meadows in the last century. The Isle of Wight represents a handful of areas where it still thrives.

The Isle of Wight is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve which recognises the need to develop and promote solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.

Seagrass Ocean Rescue is a collaborative effort, guided by local communities and stakeholders. The project is also working collaboratively with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and ReMEDIES who are working to restore seagrass in the Solent.

Many organisations got stuck in during seed collection season including Arc Biodiversity and Climate, Carlsberg, Liz Earle, CGI, Ocean Infinity, Mermaid Gin, Balance and Glo, the Isle of Wight Sea Scouts and Brownies, Open Minds and Outdoor Swimming IW, and Seagrass Champions, a group run by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

Keen locals also got involved, including Island photographer Theo Vickers who managed to capture the beauty of the existing seagrass meadows surrounding the Isle of Wight.

The project is funded by Carlsberg, Sky Ocean Rescue and Liz Earle.

Evie Furness, research assistant at Swansea University said: “Working on the Island gives me so much hope for our oceans. It's one of the few places where seagrass meadows appear to be expanding. This makes it the ideal place for us to study the best ways to plant it, allowing us to provide better guidelines for successful restoration in areas where seagrass is struggling.”

A biodiversity assessment was also conducted on the seagrass meadows in the Solent. Species including corkwing wrasse, juvenile pollock, sea bass, and plenty of pipefish were found utilising the seagrass meadow as a habitat.

How do I get involved in seagrass conservation?

Project Seagrass has designed a citizen science tool to track the distribution and status of the world’s seagrass meadows. SeagrassSpotter is a handy app that you can download onto your phone so when you come across seagrass you can easily upload your sighting. Simply take a photo, use the in-built tool to identify the species and upload into the database.

If you have old photos of seagrass, you can also upload these through www.SeagrassSpotter.org.

Look out for more information at Hullabaloo in Sandown Bay on Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16.