Project Dates: 15.06.24 to 15.03.25

Protecting Torbay’s seagrass meadows through a holistic strategy of ecological monitoring, physical protection, and community engagement.

Seagrass is a vital marine habitat. It absorbs carbon dioxide 35 times faster than a tropical rainforest and protects coastal communities by stabilising sediments via its dense root systems. Seagrass also provides nursery grounds for juvenile fish and supports a wide range of other species, including seahorses.

Unfortunately, damage from dredging and anchoring, and poor water quality has caused the UK to lose over 90% ot its seagrass meadows in the last 100 years.

Wild Planet Trust‘s ‘Save Our Seagrass’ project seeks to gain a better understanding of the health of Torbay’s seagrass meadows, coupled with an awareness campaign to reduce harmful human impacts on local seagrass meadows.

It aims to conserve and recover local seagrass meadows in Torbay by promoting seagrass-friendly moorings and championing marine issues with coastal businesses.

Maintaining and monitoring Torbay’s Advanced Mooring Systems will reduce anchoring pressure on local seagrass meadows, enabling their recovery. While an ambitious advocacy initiative will spread awareness of the importance of this marine habitat and the threats it faces.

A new ‘Seagrass Champions’ initiative will encourage tourism businesses to make behavioural change pledges and empower the local community to take action to protect its marine environment.

This project has been generously supported by Regatta Great Outdoors.

“We’re passionate about encouraging everyone to spend time outdoors, and so protecting and preserving nature for future generations is invaluable to us.” – Alice Neal, Regatta Great Outdoors.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Regatta to enable this multi-faceted project to protect and restore local seagrass meadows, while also empowering local businesses and the wider community with tangible ways to look after their local marine environment.” – Amanda Keetley, DEF.

IMPACT SUMMARY APRIL 2025: 

• Since June 2024, the team has attended 32 engagement events and meetings
  Interacting directly with 1,600 people at events and meetings, informing people of the threats to and importance of seagrass
• 80,000 views of the project’s seagrass related content across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn since June 2024, leading to greatly increased awareness of the project
• Collaborated with the Regatta Great Outdoors media team and made full use of their donated clothing
• Good media coverage for the signage installation near each of Torbay’s six main seagrass meadows
• Launched Seagrass Champions for marine-facing local businesses with a successful press release on World Seagrass Day