How the pandemic's helped Tor Bay's seagrass beds - which are home to seahorses

Research into Tor bay's seagrass suggests it's benefited during the pandemic because of fewer boats and marine traffic disturbing it - and work is now underway to ensure the beds continue to thrive.

A sea horse which is amongst the marine life seagrass helps to support
Author: Andrew KayPublished 28th May 2021
Last updated 28th May 2021

Wild Planet Trust are working to understand and support the seagrass in Tor Bay which they say is vital in supporting a healthy underwater habitat. They have teamed up with Totnes-based Valeport for a research and monitoring project.

Seagrass suffers from indiscriminate anchoring and pollution - and new local eco moorings are planned to ensure the seagrass is not damaged further.

Dr Tracey Hamston, a Conservation Officer at Wild Planet Trust, said: "We've got about six or so seagrass beds in Tor Bay and they are part of the marine conservation zones so they're a designated feature within that zone so they're recognised as being important enough to have that layer of protection.

"They're really important generally, seagrass beds. They have quite a wide range of benefits. One of the key things actually is really beneficial for our fisheries because they are nursery grounds for some of our commercial fish.

"They're amazing habitats in themselves they create this wonderful meadow under the sea, under the surface of the water and are home to a wide range of species.

"They stabilise the seabed so they are really important if we have storms which is something we've seen increasingly over recent years and their network of roots of rhizomes help to stabilise the sea bed so that's really important and a more recent thing that people have really been talking about is their amazing capacity to store carbon."

A spokesperson for Valeport, which has been supporting the seagrass project since 2017, said: "The seagrass meadows in Tor Bay are a vital nursery bed for young fish and home to key seahorse species including the protected short-snouted seahorse.

"A recent survey of the seagrass meadows, conducted in October 2020, indicated the seagrass may have benefited from a quieter period of marine traffic, in the spring and early summer of 2020 due to the pandemic.

Our full interview with Dr Tracey Hamston, Conservation Officer at Wild Planet Trust

"However, the charity is concerned that the fragile seagrass is threatened by pollution and by indiscriminate anchoring, which can unknowingly rip plants from the seabed.

"Although the seagrass areas in Tor Bay are voluntary no anchoring zones, Wild Planet Trust is actively looking to encourage water enthusiasts and boat users to respect the seagrass by not anchoring at the known seagrass locations and use permitted moorings."

Work is now underway to create new eco moorings, Dr Tracey Hamston added: "We are very excited about the prospect of introducing new eco-mooring hopefully, this summer if funding is approved.

"These new environmentally friendly moorings will allow boat users to moor up, whilst protecting the seagrass below and allowing the seagrass currently damaged by traditional anchorage methods to recover.

The protection these moorings provide is also welcomed by local people who enjoy diving and snorkelling among this beautiful habitat."

For more about the #Saveourseagrass project click here

Last month England's largest seagrass planting effort started in the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park.

The project will see 16,000 seagrass seed bags planted as part of the effort to improve the resilience of the marine environment.