Restoring once-lost seagrass meadows, reimagining wild places and empowering communities to protect the ocean’s future on the busiest waterways in the United Kingdom.

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The United Kingdom is one of the most unwild places on earth and along the southern UK coastline, there are a group of people on a mission to change this.

 

The Uk is one of the most deforested nations; our seas are heavily fished and invasive species such as Japanese wireweed are choking our coastlines, suffocating important marine habitats such as seagrass. So why seagrass? Often called the lungs of our ocean, seagrass can absorb 35 times as much Co2 as a tropical rainforest.​

 

Growing up along this coastline, I heard tales from a hundred years ago, describing UK seagrass meadows as a marine paradise, so thick that ships became tangled in their green grasp. However, in the last century, we have lost 90% of all seagrass meadows in the Atlantic Ocean. This story follows scientists and local communities restoring the Solent, a strait on England’s south coast.​

 

Despite habitat loss, pollution and coastal squeeze, seagrass restoration is not just working but thriving here. The Solent Seascape Project is a five-year initiative and one of the largest rewilding efforts in the world, bringing together scientists, conservationists, and coastal communities to restore one of the UK’s most important carbon stores and reimagine what “wild” means.​

 

Seagrass restoration is still in its infancy – barely a decade old – yet along the Solent, scientists are working collaboratively to understand how to replant these vital underwater habitats. We live on an ocean planet, and you might not know it, but seagrass is helping you survive and needs global attention.

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Over the past year, I have documented the early stages of this cycle, from nurseries and seed preparation to planting and monitoring, and I continue to follow this story as it unfolds, capturing the ongoing recovery of the Solent.

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**On going personal Project**