Crowdfunding Innovating Seagrass Restoration: The Underwater Seed Harvester Project

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Oftentimes when we protect the planet and we start to look at the ocean and

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restore habitats and protect habitats, there are a lot

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of challenges that come in that way. And oftentimes we

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have to automate things to make sure that we can do things more

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efficiently and quicker. Today is

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one of those times where we are looking at

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a project from Project Seagrass to have a seed

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harvester to help gather seeds from

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seagrass meadows and be able to help use those seeds

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to restore in other places because there are a lot of seagrass habitats

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to this day that are still being degraded and we need to restore them. As

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many of you know, seagrass habitats are extremely important coastal habitats. They

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contribute to biodiversity. They're one of the most biodiverse habitats on

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the planet, as well as our security of our coastline and

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they're great blue carbon habitat, meaning that they sequester carbon

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So it's great in the fight against climate change. So it's always important to

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save these and protect these seagrass habitats. And Project Seagrass is

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here to do that. And they came on the podcast. I asked them

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on the podcast because I saw they're doing a crowd funder for this technology

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to help better restore seagrass habitats. They want

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to create and build a seed harvester for

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seagrasses. And I think it was important to help them with

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their crowd funder. So I thought I'd have... Dr. Richard Unsworth, who

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is the scientific officer, the chief scientific officer for Seagrass,

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Project Seagrass, on the podcast to discuss this

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project and this crowdfunder so that you can get more information. And if

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you feel comfortable and you're able to, I recommend you donate. I'm

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gonna be donating as well, so I recommend that you donate to

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this project. But here is the episode on the seed harvester. Enjoy

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the episode. Let's start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

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your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with

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the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live

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for a better ocean by taking action. Now on today's episode, we

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have a very special one because we don't get to do this all the time. One of the things

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that I did want to do when I started this podcast was be

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able to help people complete their projects and be able to communicate

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those projects. And with Project Seagrass, since the get-go, I've always

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wanted to be involved in helping them spread the word because they've done such a great

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job at I'm going the

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sea. Please

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go to the link in the show notes or in the description depending on where you're watching

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this or listening to this and feel free to donate. They

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have about 10 days left as of this posting this recording and

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it's really important that you do. So I appreciate anybody who

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does this. Here's the interview with Dr. Richard Unsworth talking about

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the underwater seed harvester to restore seagrasses. Enjoy and we'll

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talk to you after. Hey Richard, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean

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Yes, always happy to talk seagrass and lovely to

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be back on this show. We chatted

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a few years ago and it's nice to catch up again to talk about

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Absolutely. I can't wait to talk about this project. We're

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going to be talking about a crowdfunding project that Project Seagrass is

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putting on. It is called Underwater Sea Harvester to

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restore seagrass. This is something that's pretty

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innovative. Has there been anything like this that you've seen before?

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Well, yes, there has, to be honest. We

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didn't lead the way here. The

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Virginia Institute of Marine Science actually led the

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way with something like this 20 years

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ago. They built a sort of a prototype

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system where they were working in

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very, very sheltered and consistently shallow habitats.

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And they were able to do something with a little bit more

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of a sort of a more simple mechanism

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and We couldn't we couldn't facilitate that so because

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we're working slightly different less stable

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Very nice. I love that. I love that. We're going to talk more about the

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Project Seagrass, this project about seagrass, of course. And

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I can't wait to do that. But why don't we just step back

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a little bit? I just want people, I just want to remind people of what

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So I'm Richard Unsworth, associate professor at Swansea University,

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but I'm also the chief science officer for

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Project Seagrass. So Project Seagrass is the the

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only internationally focused charity that's

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completely dedicated to saving

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the world's seagrass. That's all we do. We

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do research, we do conservation with

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that broader aim of trying to conserve and

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It's amazing. And the work that you guys have done has been absolutely amazing. You

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continue to lead. I feel like a lot of the

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innovative, like, I guess that the initiatives that are

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going around with Seagrass, I mean, we've had a part, a lot

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of your team on the broadcast in the past to talk about mapping

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seagrass and sort of working at workshops with seagrass.

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And it's been absolutely amazing to see the progress of the organization

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just growing and building. And I just, I love seeing that.

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So super happy to have you back to be able to talk

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about another incredible project. So

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where did this, so the idea I guess came from this initial

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prototype, but where did it build off from?

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Like why did you guys decide, hey, this is something that we can build upon

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Let's try putting ourselves in the tech world a little bit and

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As it stands, each year we and

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other organizations send lots of people out into

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the shallow waters around Europe, America,

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other places around the world, collecting seagrass seeds.

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These CRS seeds are not like, you're not picking individual seeds, but

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you're picking a spade of seeds. Think

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of something a bit more analogous to a

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group of seeds on a stem of wheat. So

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we're picking those reproductive shoots containing

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those spades from CRS meadows and in

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shallow waters for replanting this

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vital habitat. And sometimes

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that's people wading in shallow water. Sometimes

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it's people snorkeling. Sometimes it's people diving. But

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the reality here is that it's

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hard work. There's a lot of effort that goes into collecting

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these seeds. Managing

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people is a lot of work. But we're fortunate enough

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to have a lot of volunteers and people who want to come and help and get involved with

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that. But still, it means that. Improving

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seagrass restoration, making it bigger is very much dependent upon

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how many people you can get involved in. You know, there

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are limitations around that sometimes in terms of safety, in terms of

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other factors playing into it. So to

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actually think bigger, we needed to to

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find a way that we could collect these seeds in a more automated

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mechanized manner and obviously the

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idea of taking some sort of glorified lawnmower to

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some seagrass to collect some seagrass seeds is quite a

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horrific idea but that's what we're

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talking about here and we

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looked at the system that had been developed in

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Virginia and We

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spoke with the regulators in Wales,

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in the UK, about developing something on

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us. And unsurprisingly, they

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were pretty much horrified at the idea of us taking a cutting device

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to seagrass. On one hand, we're saying we need to protect seagrass.

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And on the other hand, we're saying, oh, can we

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take a little moment to it? So there's a bit of a

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mismatch there, shall we say. But what we were actually

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advocating for is having a, not

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a lawnmower that cuts the seagrass to really short, but

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something that basically just gives the seagrass a haircut. And

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that haircut is a sort of 20 centimeter

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depth, the length of seagrass. And the

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idea here is that particular parts of the summer period,

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you get a huge bloom of Of

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these seeds being produced by by seagrass and at particular time

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Of that period they'll be floating up into

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the water column sticking pride proudly out and

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at that point in time if you can Basically give

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the the seagrass a haircut at a particular height Then

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you'll collect a huge amount of these of

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these seagrass seeds But there

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is this this sort of fear of impacting

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the seagrass. So we had a bit of a

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step back and what we did is we

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developed a very sort of basic

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prototype, shall we call it, of a cutting machine

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and we developed with the regulator in

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Wales, Natural Resources Wales, together with them we developed a

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whole experimental project of like how we could determine

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whether this thing was going to impact the seagrass or not. So

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we had a whole load of transects lines under the

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water that we set up that were permanently marked.

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And we had divers going along some of these with a pair of shears,

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cutting the seagrass. We

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had somewhere, we had this sled, this

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prototype, which was cutting, didn't operate very well, but it operated enough

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that we could tow it for 20 meters and cut

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some seagrass. We compared these

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different trials against the

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abundance of natural seagrass that hadn't been impacted.

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And so we run that program for a couple of

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years, did it repeat. And what we saw is

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that there is no impact of that cutter

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because basically we're just giving it a haircut. And in

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some ways, you know, that might be a surprise, but in

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other ways not, because seagrasses all

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around the world, whether you talk about them in the tropics or you're talking about them

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in temperate climes, They're grazed. Animals

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like to eat seagrass. Of course. So we have Brent geese in the

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temperate realm and some of our colleagues who

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work on the Isle of Wight were recently down there and they witnessed

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lots of swans grazing, chomping away all

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afternoon at the seagrass. In the tropics we see dugongs, we

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see turtles, there's some types of fish. So it's

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not really a surprise that if you chop

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the seagrass it grows back. And we're

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not digging up the rhizomes or the roots. We're just basically

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cutting the shoots to a

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reduced height. And what we saw is that there is no impact.

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The seagrass remains healthy. It's doing very well. And

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when you compare that seagrass against natural populations

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that haven't been impacted, there is no difference.

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So it's great to see that and we've just

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recently written up all that information into an academic

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paper because we thought it was a key point to be able to prove

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that what we're doing is not impacting the

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seagrass. So we're in this situation, we've

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got a a prototype that it worked

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a bit, but enough to run the

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trial. We now had

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greater assurance that if we did

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this, we're not going to impact the seagrass. The regulators are

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beginning to understand that. We're able to

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get a bit more permission to use a system at larger scale.

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We just need that system. And that's

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Yeah, great project. I would imagine the

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cutting of the seagrass would almost be a bit of like a pruning in a garden, right?

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Where you're just pruning, you want it to grow back. What

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are the rates, and I know it's probably different for each species of

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seagrass, but what are the rates of growth? Do they grow back fairly

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quickly when you did that study year over year? Did you find like the

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The following year there was no difference. Yeah, and and

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it was even even after we'd cut it

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was quite difficult to actually see some of the impacts because

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As we were had taking a blade over the seagrass a lot of the seagrass

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has also been pushed down So we didn't cut it all And

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so you actually you don't tend to cease even

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that much of an impact but but you know new

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shoots pop up every, every few weeks, you know,

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um, you'll get like in the height of summer, they'll be growing, uh,

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very rapidly, you know, uh, over a few weeks period,

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you're going to get three, four centimeters of growth on a, on a shoot. So it's

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like, you know, really, really rapid turnover. So,

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um, cuts it. And, you know, so long as you're not damaging the

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actual root, the rhizome that's underpinning it, then

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Fantastic. Now, for the seeds that you do collect, and

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whether it's by humans harvesting them or the seed

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So at Project Seagrass, we have a whole range of

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programs around the UK. Some of those are very

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applied restoration, where we're trying to actually conduct

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large-scale restoration. Some of them are very experimental,

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where we're trying to learn about some of

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the intricacies in the ways we replant seagrass.

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But broadly, all that seed is being used to

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bring back these habitats, because whether it's in

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the UK, whether it's in Indonesia, whether

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it's in Japan, wherever around the

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world, we have seen huge amounts of seagrass loss. Seagrass

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is often referred to as the canary in the coal mine.

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or the canary in the ocean, really, that where

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we've lost seagrass, it's really an indicator of

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the quality of the environment that it's

240
00:15:56,711 --> 00:16:00,354
living in. And unfortunately, we've degraded our coasts all

241
00:16:00,394 --> 00:16:03,656
around the world. And we continue to do this. It's

242
00:16:03,696 --> 00:16:07,199
not it's not like a just a historic thing and there was a lot of historic

243
00:16:07,239 --> 00:16:10,421
loss But it's something that is going we continue to see

244
00:16:10,481 --> 00:16:14,223
it There you know obviously I

245
00:16:14,263 --> 00:16:17,625
work in in the UK for a lot of my my time and

246
00:16:18,746 --> 00:16:22,649
So there's a lot of focus there, but we you know we see Harbors

247
00:16:22,749 --> 00:16:26,191
estuaries where seagrass is declining because

248
00:16:26,231 --> 00:16:30,173
of poor water quality but what

249
00:16:30,193 --> 00:16:33,534
we're now doing is we're trying to bring back seabass in places where the

250
00:16:33,654 --> 00:16:37,295
environment has improved. So there's lots of places where you know it

251
00:16:37,355 --> 00:16:40,876
disappeared a long time ago or you know the environments

252
00:16:40,916 --> 00:16:44,278
have changed in lots of places so just because it was damaged here

253
00:16:46,258 --> 00:16:49,599
doesn't mean we can't plant it over there if the environment is right for it now.

254
00:16:50,259 --> 00:16:53,801
So we're trying to to replant these these habitats

255
00:16:53,841 --> 00:16:58,118
bring them back so they can form important fish habitats, support

256
00:16:58,138 --> 00:17:02,200
biodiversity, support climate change, all sorts of different factors

257
00:17:05,102 --> 00:17:09,364
Yeah, for sure. And which is all admirable. We need seagrass for

258
00:17:09,384 --> 00:17:12,626
a lot of different reasons. As we've heard

259
00:17:12,907 --> 00:17:16,949
from Project Seagrass before, looking at biodiversity, it's

260
00:17:16,969 --> 00:17:20,872
a huge biodiversity haven for a lot of different species. It's

261
00:17:21,172 --> 00:17:27,274
blue carbon habitats as well being used for that. It's

262
00:17:27,314 --> 00:17:31,054
good for coastal security, as well as feeding other habitats

263
00:17:31,335 --> 00:17:35,295
and whatnot. Seagrass is probably one of the most important habitats

264
00:17:35,315 --> 00:17:38,836
that we see all over the world, like you mentioned before, temperate and tropical

265
00:17:38,916 --> 00:17:42,017
areas. And they definitely need a

266
00:17:42,037 --> 00:17:45,458
lot of protection. Because we don't see them all the time, we don't recognize that

267
00:17:45,478 --> 00:17:49,797
they're being disturbed quite a bit and basically

268
00:17:51,858 --> 00:17:55,620
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Now,

269
00:17:56,061 --> 00:18:00,163
with this, how much do you anticipate this

270
00:18:00,503 --> 00:18:05,126
seagrass harvester to collect? How many seeds in

271
00:18:05,426 --> 00:18:08,788
a day or in a pass? Have you guys had the chance to calculate that

272
00:18:16,250 --> 00:18:19,833
What we do know is that in

273
00:18:20,013 --> 00:18:23,636
a healthy seagrass meadow, sometimes

274
00:18:23,676 --> 00:18:27,979
you have anywhere

275
00:18:28,019 --> 00:18:31,501
between 100 and 10,000 seeds per

276
00:18:31,541 --> 00:18:35,504
meter square. Right, right. So

277
00:18:36,525 --> 00:18:40,035
I think the 10,000 is more at the extreme end. And

278
00:18:40,095 --> 00:18:44,198
that's from data in your neck of the woods where people have,

279
00:18:44,278 --> 00:18:47,580
the sea grass tends to grow a bit bigger and a bit thicker, and

280
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:51,703
it's got a huge production of seeds. But we're typically finding over

281
00:18:51,723 --> 00:18:56,446
a thousand seeds per meter squared in the UK. And

282
00:18:56,887 --> 00:19:00,189
that means that if we're pulling it over, you know,

283
00:19:00,889 --> 00:19:04,372
100 meters squared, then suddenly,

284
00:19:04,392 --> 00:19:11,411
actually, we're getting a lot of seeds. If

285
00:19:11,451 --> 00:19:14,893
we take it over bigger areas, then maybe we're picking up

286
00:19:14,933 --> 00:19:19,295
millions of seeds. Obviously, there's

287
00:19:19,395 --> 00:19:22,877
other factors coming into play here. There's other uses

288
00:19:22,937 --> 00:19:26,079
of those environments. Also, we

289
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:31,001
need to be mindful of how we ensure

290
00:19:31,021 --> 00:19:34,763
that we don't cut up a lot of fish or different

291
00:19:34,783 --> 00:19:38,988
other animals. and

292
00:19:39,388 --> 00:19:42,650
but you know there's lots of ways we can do that but I

293
00:19:42,690 --> 00:19:45,831
think that broadly we should be

294
00:19:45,871 --> 00:19:49,733
able to collect millions of seeds in

295
00:19:49,753 --> 00:19:53,535
a quite rapid manner and you

296
00:19:53,575 --> 00:19:56,916
know when you're talking about meadows that are sort of you

297
00:19:56,956 --> 00:20:00,838
know over 100 hectares in size and you know doing

298
00:20:00,858 --> 00:20:04,120
this over a number of transects it's actually a very

299
00:20:04,180 --> 00:20:08,643
small proportion of the area because you're not going to actually take a

300
00:20:08,683 --> 00:20:12,006
cut to a whole meadow, you're going to put it over a small

301
00:20:12,126 --> 00:20:15,829
area of that meadow and ultimately take

302
00:20:19,300 --> 00:20:22,422
Absolutely, yeah, and I think that's that that's important for for people to know

303
00:20:22,442 --> 00:20:26,364
because these metals are huge that when you're when you're in them, and I think that's that's

304
00:20:26,504 --> 00:20:29,726
that's really important to reiterate so You

305
00:20:29,746 --> 00:20:33,068
know, it's it's really great to think that you know, obviously this

306
00:20:33,208 --> 00:20:36,930
this device will be able to collect so much more so

307
00:20:36,950 --> 00:20:40,371
many more seeds Especially when you look at compared to

308
00:20:40,572 --> 00:20:43,913
if you have volunteers out grabbing those seeds as well plus

309
00:20:44,674 --> 00:20:47,896
a lot less of a disturbance when you have one You

310
00:20:47,916 --> 00:20:51,778
know, one machine than snorkelers or what have you, people going

311
00:20:51,798 --> 00:20:55,399
through the meadows. How

312
00:20:55,479 --> 00:20:58,881
is this device used? Is it like by remote

313
00:20:58,921 --> 00:21:02,463
control or is it towed behind a vessel or

314
00:21:04,324 --> 00:21:08,746
Yes, it's towed behind a vessel at

315
00:21:08,766 --> 00:21:12,268
a sort of half a knot to one knot maximum

316
00:21:12,328 --> 00:21:15,895
speed. We've done similar

317
00:21:15,915 --> 00:21:19,456
things where we've got other types of sleds that we pull behind

318
00:21:19,536 --> 00:21:23,037
a boat and sometimes what we actually do

319
00:21:23,277 --> 00:21:28,599
is we attach the boat

320
00:21:28,639 --> 00:21:31,940
to a mooring or anchor it and

321
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:35,641
basically we winch the boat slowly into that

322
00:21:36,461 --> 00:21:41,344
anchor so we've got a very controlled speed. Because

323
00:21:41,384 --> 00:21:46,485
that's the challenge is that if you put

324
00:21:46,505 --> 00:21:49,926
the throttle slightly down, you can

325
00:21:49,966 --> 00:21:53,867
kind of just sort of jump it a bit. So

326
00:21:54,187 --> 00:21:57,508
the idea of using a sort of an anchor point is

327
00:21:57,648 --> 00:22:00,869
a better way of doing it. And then you can just have

328
00:22:00,889 --> 00:22:04,110
a very, very slow winching sort

329
00:22:06,227 --> 00:22:09,309
Yes, more of that constant movement across the

330
00:22:09,329 --> 00:22:13,132
metal. That's great. That's great to see. It's interesting,

331
00:22:13,193 --> 00:22:16,415
too, because you don't think about these things a lot of times when

332
00:22:16,435 --> 00:22:19,537
you're planning it. You have to be out in the field, and you have to know how to

333
00:22:19,578 --> 00:22:23,020
work it, and you have to know how it would react to the vessel.

334
00:22:24,241 --> 00:22:27,643
how it would react to an anchor point, and explore these

335
00:22:27,703 --> 00:22:30,986
different aspects. How long, with the prototype that

336
00:22:31,006 --> 00:22:34,448
you had, as rough as it was, how long did it take you to

337
00:22:34,568 --> 00:22:37,710
figure these things out? How many times were you, I

338
00:22:39,431 --> 00:22:42,653
Yes, and I guess the

339
00:22:42,693 --> 00:22:46,115
first time we actually trialed this, it

340
00:22:46,155 --> 00:22:49,908
wasn't just the fact that we were putting a This

341
00:22:49,948 --> 00:22:53,071
crazy sled into the water for the first time, but we're actually we

342
00:22:53,111 --> 00:22:56,895
had a some funding to buy a brand new boat and

343
00:23:00,719 --> 00:23:03,882
It's always very good for working in

344
00:23:03,922 --> 00:23:07,467
shallow waters, but where actually it's

345
00:23:07,487 --> 00:23:12,570
sort of when you get a bit of wind, it becomes a bit of a sail. So there

346
00:23:12,590 --> 00:23:19,095
was lots of trials and tribulations along the way, shall we say. We had

347
00:23:19,395 --> 00:23:23,598
some lessons learned. We got there

348
00:23:23,618 --> 00:23:29,546
in the end, but it's, yeah. With all these sorts of things, if you You

349
00:23:29,566 --> 00:23:34,108
want to develop something new, you've got to be willing to

350
00:23:38,490 --> 00:23:41,751
Absolutely. Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to

351
00:23:42,732 --> 00:23:46,373
creating something new like this. What's interesting

352
00:23:46,433 --> 00:23:49,935
is I haven't seen anything like, you guys have done some pretty interesting things

353
00:23:50,115 --> 00:23:54,157
at Project Seagrass, putting the mapping platform

354
00:23:54,197 --> 00:23:57,559
together and so forth. What made you decide to

355
00:23:57,619 --> 00:24:01,382
take on this project in itself with a prototype?

356
00:24:01,522 --> 00:24:05,185
I mean, does it require, like, did you have somebody

357
00:24:05,205 --> 00:24:08,447
who's like has an engineering background or, you know, was this

358
00:24:11,790 --> 00:24:14,892
Well, it came out of a project that we

359
00:24:14,932 --> 00:24:19,236
were running in another part of Wales,

360
00:24:20,136 --> 00:24:23,339
in Milford Haven, where we planted a lot of seagrass, used a lot of

361
00:24:23,979 --> 00:24:28,096
volunteers. And we were working quite closely with

362
00:24:28,617 --> 00:24:31,758
the charity WWF. All right. And they

363
00:24:31,778 --> 00:24:35,740
were sort of they'd been involved with it. And one of their funding officers

364
00:24:36,360 --> 00:24:40,462
was actually quite a character and

365
00:24:40,482 --> 00:24:43,783
a guy called Jim Nichols. He he came out with us

366
00:24:44,044 --> 00:24:47,545
and it was like, well, you know, this is this is this

367
00:24:47,605 --> 00:24:50,807
is hard work, all this hard graft. Like maybe we

368
00:24:50,827 --> 00:24:54,887
could get some funding to to have a project that's mechanized

369
00:24:55,127 --> 00:24:58,371
particular elements because this isn't the only bit of this story that's we've

370
00:24:58,391 --> 00:25:01,575
been trying to to mechanize but by

371
00:25:01,615 --> 00:25:05,500
a long road so we developed a project

372
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,860
proposal with with him and something

373
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,501
called the Garfield Western Foundation. They were great

374
00:25:12,761 --> 00:25:16,222
in supporting a project to develop

375
00:25:16,242 --> 00:25:19,842
that pilot concept. And we also played

376
00:25:19,902 --> 00:25:23,563
with other things, building some sleds to pump seeds

377
00:25:23,603 --> 00:25:27,084
into the sediment, building some

378
00:25:27,244 --> 00:25:30,424
aquaria that was like, which allows us to process the

379
00:25:30,444 --> 00:25:34,321
seeds because once you collect them, There's

380
00:25:34,381 --> 00:25:38,202
other laborious jobs that go with that. So

381
00:25:38,762 --> 00:25:41,963
we had some funding to do all these different things, and that's

382
00:25:42,003 --> 00:25:45,224
why we sort of started developing these ideas of how

383
00:25:45,264 --> 00:25:48,705
can we mechanize this. And so we're able

384
00:25:48,745 --> 00:25:52,246
to run that project where we worked with the regulators to

385
00:25:52,286 --> 00:25:56,367
do all that testing and to develop that pilot. But we're

386
00:25:56,407 --> 00:25:59,888
now at the point where we've demonstrated that

387
00:26:03,824 --> 00:26:07,207
That's amazing. It's got to be quite exciting to come to this point after

388
00:26:07,247 --> 00:26:10,991
all those years of putting this together and thinking about this and fidgeting

389
00:26:11,051 --> 00:26:14,134
around with how to tell it and what it should look like and how to

390
00:26:14,214 --> 00:26:17,397
design it. You know, as I look at the website for

391
00:26:17,417 --> 00:26:21,148
the crowd funder. You're close. You're very

392
00:26:21,188 --> 00:26:24,470
close to the goal, to your goal. And we're in about the last

393
00:26:24,610 --> 00:26:28,333
week, week and a half, probably the last week proper to

394
00:26:28,673 --> 00:26:32,035
be able to get this funding. Once

395
00:26:32,055 --> 00:26:36,438
you get this funding, and we're going to say when because I'm

396
00:26:36,498 --> 00:26:39,720
confident that you'll get it because I know a lot of people in our audience would

397
00:26:39,740 --> 00:26:44,323
love to be a part of seeing this story develop

398
00:26:45,203 --> 00:26:48,425
as a micro-funder and so forth. What's the

399
00:26:48,505 --> 00:26:51,667
plan once the funding happens? You're going to go out

400
00:26:55,269 --> 00:26:59,071
So we've been working with a company

401
00:26:59,111 --> 00:27:02,792
called Tandem Ventures. They're a bit of a quirky

402
00:27:02,812 --> 00:27:05,957
group of people who do all sorts of

403
00:27:05,977 --> 00:27:10,900
things from building jetpacks, to design a

404
00:27:10,981 --> 00:27:14,203
range of kits. So

405
00:27:14,223 --> 00:27:17,566
they're engineers, they're people with those natural skills to

406
00:27:17,626 --> 00:27:20,866
build and engineer things. So the aim is

407
00:27:20,906 --> 00:27:24,588
to then, you know, deliver and try

408
00:27:24,628 --> 00:27:28,650
to actually pull this design together and

409
00:27:28,670 --> 00:27:32,852
then actually then next summer ultimately test

410
00:27:32,912 --> 00:27:36,354
it. And that's the key part

411
00:27:36,394 --> 00:27:41,372
there is to be able to test it next year. I

412
00:27:41,412 --> 00:27:44,833
guess the crowd funder is the minimal point of what

413
00:27:44,853 --> 00:27:48,053
we're hoping for and it would be great if we were able

414
00:27:48,093 --> 00:27:52,034
to raise a bit more so we can do a bit more next summer.

415
00:27:52,294 --> 00:27:55,915
But the key thing is to get a truly operating

416
00:27:55,975 --> 00:27:59,596
piece of kit that is no longer at a prototype

417
00:27:59,616 --> 00:28:08,204
level and we can actually roll that out. The

418
00:28:08,224 --> 00:28:12,327
person who's been heading up this project within our team, Sam Rees,

419
00:28:12,668 --> 00:28:16,431
he's been working with Tandem and developing ideas

420
00:28:16,491 --> 00:28:20,715
and that's why we've got to this point that

421
00:28:20,755 --> 00:28:23,958
we can actually try and go for this crowdfunder and try and

422
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:29,864
really run it out because Sam

423
00:28:30,084 --> 00:28:33,847
has been playing with all these different bits of kit It's

424
00:28:33,887 --> 00:28:38,009
like we've learned each different stage and now we

425
00:28:38,029 --> 00:28:42,491
just needed someone with the technical know-how

426
00:28:42,611 --> 00:28:46,113
to turn those concepts,

427
00:28:46,273 --> 00:28:49,535
ideas, and learning into something that is

428
00:28:50,875 --> 00:28:54,197
That's amazing. That's awesome. Now once this is built,

429
00:28:55,552 --> 00:28:59,353
Is there another study that's going to be done year over year to compare with

430
00:28:59,533 --> 00:29:04,014
the original prototype and to see the differences and obviously sort

431
00:29:04,034 --> 00:29:07,695
of go through some iterations to make this new prototype

432
00:29:08,975 --> 00:29:12,376
Yes, that's the need to

433
00:29:12,856 --> 00:29:16,777
hopefully go beyond the crowd funders is the

434
00:29:16,817 --> 00:29:20,517
target so we can actually do a lot more of that comparisons we can

435
00:29:20,577 --> 00:29:24,772
deliver with it. There

436
00:29:24,792 --> 00:29:29,998
will be fine tuning even when you have an operational piece

437
00:29:30,038 --> 00:29:34,383
of equipment. How we pull

438
00:29:34,463 --> 00:29:38,107
it and all the different things that will

439
00:29:38,147 --> 00:29:42,752
come up. To be able to pull

440
00:29:42,832 --> 00:29:47,591
a tow over a long distance we

441
00:29:47,611 --> 00:29:51,633
would need to do assessment work on that first so we don't ram

442
00:29:51,673 --> 00:29:56,176
it over a rock. So

443
00:29:56,196 --> 00:29:59,518
we have to do bits and pieces like that. But that's

444
00:29:59,798 --> 00:30:04,181
the broader aim is to be able to refine it and work

445
00:30:04,201 --> 00:30:07,603
with it and then use it in other places and that's important

446
00:30:08,583 --> 00:30:12,626
because there's other jurisdictions just within the UK

447
00:30:12,686 --> 00:30:16,162
where some of the regulators are

448
00:30:16,182 --> 00:30:19,343
a little more suspicious than others and a

449
00:30:19,383 --> 00:30:23,745
little more embracing. So there's some

450
00:30:24,345 --> 00:30:27,527
room for trying to work with

451
00:30:27,747 --> 00:30:32,289
those guys. But there's other researchers around Europe,

452
00:30:32,349 --> 00:30:36,010
about North America, other parts of the world who might

453
00:30:36,030 --> 00:30:39,231
be interested to have a go and use something like this.

454
00:30:39,432 --> 00:30:43,706
So who knows where it'll go. Our

455
00:30:44,186 --> 00:30:48,408
broader aim as an organization is to save

456
00:30:48,428 --> 00:30:51,730
the world's seagrass, but that's something that's a very long-term goal, and

457
00:30:51,770 --> 00:30:55,272
that's something that we don't do alone. That's about partnerships, it's

458
00:30:55,312 --> 00:30:58,493
about working with organizations all around the world, and if

459
00:30:58,533 --> 00:31:02,435
we can develop knowledge and equipment and things that other

460
00:31:02,455 --> 00:31:06,077
people can run with, then that's what we

461
00:31:06,097 --> 00:31:09,358
want. So if someone uses something like

462
00:31:13,448 --> 00:31:17,450
Absolutely. That was going to be one of my

463
00:31:17,530 --> 00:31:20,691
questions. There was an ROV that

464
00:31:20,731 --> 00:31:23,972
was developed a number of years ago and it was by

465
00:31:23,992 --> 00:31:27,113
a company called Open ROV. They made it small and

466
00:31:27,133 --> 00:31:30,695
they made it compact and they made it essentially that anybody can buy. I

467
00:31:30,715 --> 00:31:35,137
think it was like $1,000 or $1,500. There was also an

468
00:31:35,217 --> 00:31:38,878
option to build it yourself and so it was like a DIY kit

469
00:31:38,918 --> 00:31:42,235
for like $600 or $700. And then at one point,

470
00:31:43,136 --> 00:31:46,498
somebody backed it. And James Cameron actually backed it

471
00:31:46,658 --> 00:31:49,760
and said, hey, I'm going to buy 1,000 of these and you

472
00:31:49,780 --> 00:31:53,283
can give it to all these different organizations so

473
00:31:53,303 --> 00:31:56,885
that they can also use it and they can gain access to it and use it for conservation

474
00:31:56,905 --> 00:32:00,467
projects. is, I know that we're in the very beginning stages

475
00:32:00,687 --> 00:32:03,788
of this prototype trying to get it funding and built, you

476
00:32:03,808 --> 00:32:07,189
know, so that it's usable. But is that the idea going

477
00:32:07,269 --> 00:32:10,370
forward? You know, as you mentioned, you know, if somebody in Japan wants to do it, or

478
00:32:10,390 --> 00:32:13,651
somebody Indonesia wants to use something very similar to that, is

479
00:32:13,671 --> 00:32:17,413
that the in the future plans of saying if we can make

480
00:32:17,493 --> 00:32:21,255
this really compact and make it easy to either build or

481
00:32:21,596 --> 00:32:25,578
use by other people, this is something that could be commercialized

482
00:32:25,738 --> 00:32:28,980
and shared with a lot of other

483
00:32:31,682 --> 00:32:34,964
I don't think we'd want to commercialize it per se, because I don't think that,

484
00:32:38,607 --> 00:32:41,829
Yeah. Ourselves. But, you know, if

485
00:32:42,070 --> 00:32:46,573
we could share it with others, then yes, absolutely. And one

486
00:32:46,593 --> 00:32:50,416
of our big things is about knowledge sharing. And, you know, it's

487
00:32:50,456 --> 00:32:53,769
important that as scientists, you write things up,

488
00:32:53,789 --> 00:32:57,515
you share it and it doesn't matter

489
00:32:57,615 --> 00:33:00,840
sometimes whether that's a success or a failure, you

490
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,386
need to share it and we'd

491
00:33:04,406 --> 00:33:07,965
love to be able to give it to others. It

492
00:33:08,005 --> 00:33:11,526
won't be a global tool because seagrasses in

493
00:33:11,846 --> 00:33:14,927
some parts of the world don't grow in the

494
00:33:14,967 --> 00:33:18,288
same way that you can collect

495
00:33:18,328 --> 00:33:21,469
the seeds in this manner. So a lot

496
00:33:21,489 --> 00:33:24,730
of the tropical seagrasses don't produce seed in

497
00:33:24,770 --> 00:33:27,851
the same way, so it

498
00:33:27,931 --> 00:33:33,467
wouldn't necessarily equate. both

499
00:33:33,567 --> 00:33:37,029
northern and southern temperate regions, there's a

500
00:33:37,049 --> 00:33:40,231
lot of sea grass where they're

501
00:33:40,251 --> 00:33:43,752
growing in a similar way. So I think there's opportunities there for

502
00:33:43,812 --> 00:33:47,294
sure. Great. And Zostra marina, known as eelgrass, which

503
00:33:47,334 --> 00:33:50,776
is what we're focusing it on, is

504
00:33:54,278 --> 00:33:57,519
Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty prolific around the world. Yeah.

505
00:34:01,943 --> 00:34:05,084
Very nice, very nice. Now I have to, I have to ask, I mean, this is, I

506
00:34:05,124 --> 00:34:08,405
know this project is a serious project you've been working on for quite some time, but

507
00:34:08,445 --> 00:34:12,067
you're at this stage. How excited are you and the team to

508
00:34:15,686 --> 00:34:18,907
Oh we're stoked, it's an exciting project, it's

509
00:34:18,947 --> 00:34:22,048
really nice to know that people want to support us and

510
00:34:22,388 --> 00:34:26,109
you know I think in running a charity

511
00:34:26,329 --> 00:34:30,071
it's like, it's amazing how people

512
00:34:30,131 --> 00:34:33,352
come to the fore and want to support you and people, you

513
00:34:33,392 --> 00:34:37,173
know, all sorts of different walks of life and different sort of scenarios.

514
00:34:37,673 --> 00:34:41,054
whether they're wealthy or not.

515
00:34:41,834 --> 00:34:45,315
We get all sorts of different donors and it's amazing to

516
00:34:45,375 --> 00:34:49,536
see how people will support the work that you're doing because

517
00:34:49,936 --> 00:34:53,077
I think there's a lot of eco-anxiety out there as

518
00:34:53,117 --> 00:34:57,418
well. There's a lot of people wanting to do something and in some

519
00:34:57,678 --> 00:35:01,207
walks of life people can do things and change change things, but

520
00:35:01,327 --> 00:35:05,710
in others they can't. Actually supporting a charitable organization

521
00:35:05,730 --> 00:35:09,193
to do something like this is a

522
00:35:09,233 --> 00:35:14,937
nice thing. It's something to never assume

523
00:35:15,798 --> 00:35:20,101
you deserve as a charity, but it's lovely to see it, where

524
00:35:20,121 --> 00:35:23,704
people are actually giving their hard-earned money to support

525
00:35:25,025 --> 00:35:28,247
an activity that can improve the status of

526
00:35:29,730 --> 00:35:33,094
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll be honest, I think it's a testament to your

527
00:35:33,134 --> 00:35:36,857
team in the work that you've done in the past as well as continue

528
00:35:36,897 --> 00:35:40,141
to do and be very transparent of the work

529
00:35:40,181 --> 00:35:43,264
that you've been able to do. Not only do you

530
00:35:43,304 --> 00:35:47,468
have a great comms team, but you have people on the team that love

531
00:35:47,508 --> 00:35:50,932
Seagrass, love to share their work on Seagrass and their thoughts. And

532
00:35:50,952 --> 00:35:54,403
I think that's really helped gather you know, more

533
00:35:54,623 --> 00:35:58,107
eyes on the work that you're doing, and it's showing already

534
00:35:58,728 --> 00:36:01,991
in this part. There's still quite a ways to go, you know,

535
00:36:02,332 --> 00:36:05,695
and there's 11 days left as of this recording, and I think we're going to be publishing

536
00:36:05,715 --> 00:36:08,798
when there's 10 days left. So I, you know, I want to

537
00:36:08,818 --> 00:36:12,321
tell people, like, I've got a lot of people who are like, hey, you know, I don't

538
00:36:12,341 --> 00:36:15,523
have a lot of money to donate to large, large projects, but

539
00:36:15,863 --> 00:36:19,104
this is a way, the crowdfunding for things like this is a way that you can

540
00:36:19,425 --> 00:36:22,766
donate little bits and bits, and it'll go towards

541
00:36:22,806 --> 00:36:26,167
a larger project that can help restore seagrasses in the future.

542
00:36:26,228 --> 00:36:30,149
I think this is an investment that's definitely worthwhile, and

543
00:36:30,890 --> 00:36:34,171
I know I'm gonna be donating, and I'm looking forward to doing that. And when

544
00:36:34,191 --> 00:36:38,293
I saw this project, I was like, oh, we gotta have somebody from the team on

545
00:36:38,353 --> 00:36:41,855
to be able to talk about this and to be able to help just push it over. September

546
00:36:44,917 --> 00:36:49,039
Yep, that's the end date. I

547
00:36:49,079 --> 00:36:54,582
would love to have people's support. It's hugely appreciated. We're

548
00:36:55,042 --> 00:36:58,504
aware that it's never easy to give

549
00:36:59,185 --> 00:37:02,327
hard-earned funds away, but it's hugely appreciated when

550
00:37:03,856 --> 00:37:07,478
Yeah, absolutely. I've done episodes before on eco-anxiety, climate

551
00:37:07,518 --> 00:37:11,401
anxiety, and this is part of how you can help

552
00:37:11,921 --> 00:37:15,303
and how you can ease off some of that anxiety. There

553
00:37:15,323 --> 00:37:19,205
are people out there that are doing some great work and doing their best to help

554
00:37:19,305 --> 00:37:22,687
with the planet, help with the environment, and restore seagrass as

555
00:37:22,787 --> 00:37:25,869
part of that. As I mentioned at the beginning, it's great as a

556
00:37:25,909 --> 00:37:29,232
habitat for biodiversity. as well as a blue carbon

557
00:37:29,272 --> 00:37:33,095
habitat to help sequester carbon out of the atmosphere. And so this

558
00:37:33,175 --> 00:37:36,778
is going to be an important investment into our future. So I highly recommend

559
00:37:36,838 --> 00:37:40,060
people to donate. So to do that,

560
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,603
I'm going to put a link in the show notes and people can go over and

561
00:37:43,943 --> 00:37:47,006
donate. Do this soon. Don't wait. And even if

562
00:37:47,026 --> 00:37:51,089
you see they're getting close to the goal, as Richard said, If they

563
00:37:51,129 --> 00:37:54,312
go over, that's okay, because they'll use those funds for more studies and

564
00:37:54,352 --> 00:37:57,594
so forth. So don't worry about just getting to the goal. Just donate what

565
00:37:57,634 --> 00:38:00,836
you can and what you're able to afford, and let's see this

566
00:38:00,876 --> 00:38:04,639
thing get going, and I'm looking forward to seeing its progress. So Richard, thank

567
00:38:04,659 --> 00:38:08,222
you so much for joining us on today's episode. We really appreciate

568
00:38:08,262 --> 00:38:11,464
the work that you and your team continue to do, and we look forward to having

569
00:38:14,607 --> 00:38:17,889
Thank you very much for having me, and it's lovely to catch

570
00:38:17,949 --> 00:38:21,143
up. hear your podcasts which are

571
00:38:21,163 --> 00:38:25,049
always an interesting addition

572
00:38:28,374 --> 00:38:32,580
Thank you, we really appreciate it.

573
00:38:32,740 --> 00:38:36,183
Thank you Richard for joining us today. on the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I

574
00:38:36,223 --> 00:38:39,865
really appreciate you coming on, explaining why we need a seed

575
00:38:39,885 --> 00:38:43,247
harvester, why it's important, how much more efficient it

576
00:38:43,287 --> 00:38:46,549
will be, how many more seeds it will collect, and what

577
00:38:46,589 --> 00:38:49,891
we need to do, and sort of the call to action of why we need

578
00:38:49,951 --> 00:38:53,494
to protect and restore seagrasses, not just in the UK,

579
00:38:53,574 --> 00:38:57,156
not just in Canada, not just in the US, but all over the world. And I really appreciate

580
00:38:57,196 --> 00:39:01,058
the work that Project Searest have done. You and your team have been fantastic. And

581
00:39:01,098 --> 00:39:04,880
this crowdfunder at this point is 71% funded

582
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:09,402
at this point of this recording. And I'm hoping it'll be funded for

583
00:39:09,923 --> 00:39:13,105
like beyond 100%. And I hope we are a part of

584
00:39:13,145 --> 00:39:16,546
that as an audience. And so, you know, a lot of people that I've had, that

585
00:39:16,586 --> 00:39:19,808
I've engaged with in this audience have said, hey, you know, if there's a

586
00:39:20,188 --> 00:39:23,649
way that we can be part of projects or be able to contribute

587
00:39:23,669 --> 00:39:27,551
to projects, we would love to do that. This is one of those ways. And

588
00:39:27,591 --> 00:39:30,912
so I highly recommend that you go to the link in the show notes as well, or

589
00:39:30,992 --> 00:39:34,534
in the description if you're watching this on YouTube, and feel free to donate

590
00:39:34,714 --> 00:39:38,636
whatever you can. There's different amounts. There's incentives

591
00:39:38,656 --> 00:39:42,477
for different amounts, but we really appreciate anything that you can donate. Go

592
00:39:42,497 --> 00:39:45,658
over to the show notes as well as in the description if

593
00:39:45,678 --> 00:39:48,960
you're watching this on YouTube. And I want to thank you so much for

594
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:52,301
joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Thank

595
00:39:52,321 --> 00:39:55,623
you so much for your donation if you decide to donate, if you can

596
00:39:55,663 --> 00:39:59,244
donate, and just listening. I really appreciate you just listening to this. And if you know

597
00:39:59,264 --> 00:40:02,526
people who are interested in this kind of stuff, just share it around and maybe they will donate as well

598
00:40:02,906 --> 00:40:05,987
and support this project. So thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the

599
00:40:06,027 --> 00:40:09,188
How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk