One of the current volunteer projects at Mount's Bay Marine Group is the surveying of the local seagrass beds and kelp forests that are situated within the conservation zone of Mount's Bay in Cornwall. This project helps to greatly support a turnaround in the mass decline of seagrass meadows of late in the UK – with figures in recent news articles now exceeding a worrying loss of over 92 percent.
Superheroes save the seagrass of Mount's Bay
Volunteers from Mount's Bay Marine Group are saving their local seagrass patch - surveying the seagrass beds and kelp forests situated in the conservation zone of Mount's Bay, aiming to rewild and protect these areas for years to come.
Long term volunteer Yvonne Oates says:
“Our meadows of seagrass really are so vital as not only do they provide a nursery environment for commercial species of fish such as young cod, our native species of seahorse and even rare species of stalked jellyfish, they are also an important blue carbon habitat and coastal defence system here in Cornwall and a vital food source for over wintering birds here such as ducks and geese. They also provide necessary spawning grounds for small and large marine life, shelter and places to hunt and to feed."
The seagrass meadows in Mount's Bay, along with the rest of the UK are sadly declining and are easily damaged through local boat anchoring, poor fishing practices, bottom trawling, human interference, warming waters, and the effects of sedimentation, sewage and pollution. With robust continued monitoring and data mapping, the group aim to get the local seagrass meadows further protected using seagrass marker buoys and anchor restriction zones being put into place in the Bay.
As a volunteer group, they currently map the boundaries of the seagrass beds each spring and summer using snorkelling so as not to uproot or disturb the seagrass. The ultimate aim is to obtain photographs using GPS to create heat maps enabling them to better monitor the ongoing health and size of the beds and to evidence the damage going forward. This helps the group to obtain valuable support from organisations such as DEFRA and Natural England.
Katie Maggs, chair of the group said:
“We also carry out important species counts on some of the transects that we have marked off, to evidence the sheer value of seagrass in marine biodiversity. We achieve this through a dedicated volunteer group following a strict methodology that aims to survey 47 sections from Mousehole to Cudden Point over the next two years, often targeting at risk areas that are at summer threat of crop circles created in the seagrass meadows by tourism yacht mooring and anchoring issues. Our short term aims are the successful training of new volunteers for the physical monitoring and surveying of the seagrass meadows.
Longer term, the impact will be the rewilding of such areas and the protection of the marine life that depend on the seagrass going forward. It will also enable the project to continue running and hopefully support the monitoring or discovery of seagrass beds and kelp forests in other areas. For example, there has been no mapped seagrass beds on the north cost since the 1930s! Similarly, our friends at St Ives Marine Group may also require our help and assistance with this on their coastal side with increased mapping moving forward. Anyone can get involved by attending our monthly meetings highlighted on our website.”
Find out more about Mount's Bay Marine Group below.
