England’s largest seagrass planting programme is taking place in the UK’s first National Marine Park.
“Providing homes for juvenile fish and protected creatures, stabilising the seabed, cleaning the surrounding seawater and capturing and storing significant amounts of carbon.”
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Lyme Bay has its own conservation area:
Lyme Bay’s Marine Protected Area – Vision Group for Sidmouth
As do the main river mouths of the Bay:
Axe and Otter Estuaries become Marine Conservation Zones – Vision Group for Sidmouth
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Round the corner to the west, there is a very special area:
Plymouth Sound National Marine Park – the UK’s first National Marine Park
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Devon Live was there over the weekend, covering all sorts of amazing things:
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And last week, there had been a lot of activity:
Plymouth Sound volunteers plant seeds to restore seagrass meadows – BBC News
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With a full report from the Ocean Conservation Trust:
Work on England’s largest seagrass planting programme is taking place in Plymouth Sound National Marine Park. A total of 16,000 seagrass seed bags and 2,200 seedling bags are being planted by the Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT) as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project being led by Natural England to help support and improve the resilience of our marine environment.
By planting seagrass in the Sound, the project hopes to create more seagrass meadows which provide homes for juvenile fish and protected creatures like seahorses and stalked jellyfish. Seagrass also has an integral role in stabilising the seabed, cleaning the surrounding seawater and capturing and storing significant amounts of carbon.
This is part of an even bigger project:
Collaborative Seagrass Restoration | Ocean Conservation Trust
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It’s happening on other parts of the UK coast:
Climate change: Carbon-reducing seagrass planted off Welsh coast – BBC News
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Restoring seagrass beds is crucial, then, on many levels:
Seagrass in Lyme Bay – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Seagrass as ecosystem service: naturally removing plastics – Vision Group for Sidmouth
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photo: Ocean Conservation Trust