A collaboration between IW College students, Project Seagrass, and Marine Photographer Theo Vickers.
Sat 1st Mar – Sun 30th Mar
A collaboration between Isle of Wight College students Btec Art and Design Practice Level 3 Year 1, Project Seagrass and Marine Photographer Theo Vickers exploring the Isle of Wights Sea Grass beds through photography and 3D installations documenting the fauna that lives within this globally rare and important habitat.
Project Seagrass
Project Seagrass is a marine conservation organisation working to save the world’s seagrass. Their mission is to lead societal change to enable the recognition, recovery, and resilience of seagrass ecosystems globally. By turning cutting-edge research into effective conservation, education, and action, Project Seagrass are working towards a world where seagrass meadows are thriving, abundant, and well managed for people and planet.
Seagrass on the Isle of Wight
Seagrass is a marine flowering plant that forms lush meadows and can be found here in the Solent and Isle of Wight.
Unlike seaweed, seagrass has roots, flowers and leaves. Individual seagrass plants spread through the seabed to create a seagrass meadow creating a productive habitat with many benefits to people and planet. Seagrass stores atmospheric carbon, provides a nursery ground for many fish species, promotes biodiversity, helps to improve water quality, and provides protection against storms by helping to stabilise our coastlines.
Seagrass meadows can be found along the North coast of the Isle of Wight, including at Yarmouth, Seaview, and Ryde. There are two main species of seagrass found in the Solent. These are Common Eelgrass (Zostera marina), that grows sub-tidally and is exposed when the tide goes out, and Dwarf Eelgrass (Nanozostera noltei), a smaller seagrass species that grows intertidally where the tide goes in and out.
Seagrass Restoration
Maintaining the health of seagrass meadows is important for healthy marine life and healthy people. However, over the last 100 years the UK has lost up to 92% of seagrass habitat predominately a result of poor water quality caused by urban, agricultural, and industrial run-off, coastal development, direct physical damage, and the worsening impacts of climate change.
Project Seagrass is working to restore seagrass across the Isle of Wight by undertaking planting trials and active restoration to re-establish and help marine habitats thrive.
Support seagrass on the Isle of Wight
SeagrassSpotter
Despite the many benefits that seagrass brings to people and planet, seagrass data around the world is incomplete.
You can help to map and conserve seagrass on the Isle of Wight and become a citizen scientist by uploading photographs of your seagrass sightings to SeagrassSpotter. SeagrassSpotter is a free app and website where you can contribute towards a growing resource mapping the world’s seagrass.
Seagrass Safe Sailing
One way to reduce pressure on sensitive seagrass habitats is to remove the opportunity for physical damage caused by recreational boating activities such as anchoring and mooring.
Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS) are a simple solution to prevent and alleviate physical seabed damage, disturbance, and seagrass scarring caused from traditional anchorage. This ensures that a bustling boating community can thrive alongside seagrass meadows.
Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS) are being installed across the island to reduce physical damage to seagrass meadows. This will protect newly planted seagrass restoration sites on the Isle of Wight and allow them to have time to germinate, grow, and thrive with as little disturbance as possible. On occasions where Advanced Mooring Systems aren’t available and anchoring is necessary.
The Green Blue and Royal Yachting Association have a range of resources including best practices for anchoring and how to avoid further damage to sensitive marine habitats.
A range of resources of the Project Seagrass website provide further information on how you can be a Seagrass Safe Sailor and become part of the sustainable boating community.
Fragment Walks
One of the methods that Project Seagrass are trialing to restore seagrass around the Isle of Wight is to collect and replant seagrass fragments. During winter storms, strong winds and waves dislodge fragments of seagrass which then wash up along local shores.
During Fragment Walks, healthy green plants are collected and replanted in local seagrass meadows and at restoration sites with the help of volunteers.
Upcoming Fragment Walks
27th March, 1:30pm – 4:30pm | Priory Bay
To find out more, please visit the below websites:
Project Seagrass
Marine Photographer Theo Vickers
FREE ENTRY
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