BSAC volunteers help collect 1.5 million seagrass seeds

Fifty BSAC divers took part in a ‘mass’ seagrass seed collection during August, as part of an ambitious seagrass restoration initiative on the North Wales coast.

During a two-week period over the summer of 2024, over 200 volunteers, including snorkellers and waders as well as BSAC divers, joined forces with the Project Seagrass team to collect an estimated 1.5 million seagrass seeds from the waters of Porthdinllaen. 

The mass seed collection event was part of the Seagrass Ocean Rescue: North Wales project, which aims to plant seagrass over an area of ten hectares across North Wales between 2022 and 2026. The first of its scale in the UK, the project is managed by WWF, in partnership with Project Seagrass, the North Wales Wildlife Trust, Pen Llŷn a'r Sarnau Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Swansea University. The project is made possible with support from funders that include the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the Moondance Foundation.

With a 90% reduction in the UK’s seagrass meadows over the past 100 years, there are  many negative consequences for the health and resilience of our coastal systems. However, projects such as Seagrass Ocean Rescue aim to halt the damage by restoring and protecting this vital habitat.  

Pioneers in seagrass restoration methodologies, Project Seagrass will now take the seeds gathered from Porthdinllaen’s healthy seagrass meadows to be processed.

The seeds will then be stored in a special seagrass nursery, ready to be planted out early next spring as part of Project Seagrass’ planned restoration work in North Wales during 2025.