Crowdfunding Innovating Seagrass Restoration: The Underwater Seed Harvester Project

In this episode, we explore the crucial role of seagrass habitats in coastal ecosystems and their importance in combating climate change. Join us as we discuss Project Seagrass and their innovative initiative to create a seed harvester designed to...
In this episode, we explore the crucial role of seagrass habitats in coastal ecosystems and their importance in combating climate change. Join us as we discuss Project Seagrass and their innovative initiative to create a seed harvester designed to efficiently gather seeds from seagrass meadows. Dr. Richard Unsworth, the chief scientific officer of Project Seagrass, shares insights into the challenges of restoring degraded seagrass habitats and the potential impact of their crowdfunding campaign aimed at developing this essential technology. Discover how you can contribute to the preservation of these vital ecosystems and join us in supporting this important cause. Don't miss this enlightening conversation about protecting our oceans and the future of seagrass restoration!
Support the Project: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/underwater-seagrass-seed-harvester?__cf_chl_rt_tk=Ms7lI_hTDLz3947auDBLvQtwQKoVaGaVBOs6f9eM6_8-1726751063-0.0.1.1-8276
Sign Up for Updates on the process: www.speakupforblue.com/oceanapp
Connect with Speak Up For Blue:
Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc
YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube
Project Seagrass and the Development of an Underwater Seed Harvester
Project Seagrass is leading innovative conservation efforts aimed at restoring degraded seagrass habitats worldwide. One of their most exciting initiatives is the development of an underwater seed harvester designed to automate the collection of seagrass seeds. This project is crucial for enhancing restoration efforts, as seagrass meadows play a vital role in coastal ecosystems.
Importance of Seagrass Habitats
Seagrass habitats are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. They significantly contribute to coastal biodiversity, provide security for coastlines, and serve as important blue carbon habitats, meaning they sequester carbon and help combat climate change. However, many of these habitats are currently facing degradation due to various environmental pressures, including poor water quality and human activities.
The Need for Automation
Traditionally, collecting seagrass seeds has been a labor-intensive process, requiring volunteers to wade, snorkel, or dive in shallow waters to gather seeds manually. This method is not only time-consuming but also limited by the number of people who can participate. Project Seagrass recognized the need for a more efficient approach to seed collection to scale up restoration efforts.
The Underwater Seed Harvester
The underwater seed harvester aims to mechanize the seed collection process. Drawing inspiration from a prototype developed by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science two decades ago, Project Seagrass is building upon this foundation to create a more effective tool suitable for varying environmental conditions. The harvester will operate by "giving the seagrass a haircut," cutting the seagrass shoots at a specific height to collect seeds without damaging the underlying roots or rhizomes.
Research and Development
Before moving forward with the harvester, Project Seagrass conducted extensive research to ensure that the cutting process would not negatively impact the seagrass. They collaborated with regulators in Wales to develop a series of experimental trials, comparing the health of seagrass that had been cut with that of untouched meadows. The results showed no significant negative impact, confirming that the seagrass could recover quickly after being pruned.
Future Plans
With the prototype successfully tested, Project Seagrass is now focused on securing funding through a crowdfunding campaign to build a fully operational version of the seed harvester. Once funded, they plan to work with engineering partners to finalize the design and conduct further tests in the upcoming summer. The ultimate goal is to create a reliable tool that can be used not only in the UK but also in other regions facing similar seagrass restoration challenges.
The Importance of Seagrass and the Underwater Seed Harvester Project
Seagrass habitats are vital coastal ecosystems that play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and combating climate change. Often referred to as the "canary in the coal mine" for marine environments, they indicate the overall health of coastal ecosystems. Unfortunately, seagrass meadows are facing significant degradation worldwide due to various factors, including poor water quality and habitat loss.
Why Seagrass Matters
-
Biodiversity: Seagrass meadows are among the most biodiverse habitats on the planet, providing essential habitat and nursery grounds for numerous marine species, including fish, invertebrates, and other wildlife.
-
Coastal Protection: Seagrasses help stabilize coastlines by reducing erosion and providing a buffer against storm surges. This is particularly important in the context of rising sea levels and increasing storm intensity due to climate change.
-
Blue Carbon: Seagrass meadows are significant carbon sinks, sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping mitigate climate change. They store carbon in their biomass and in the sediment beneath them, making them critical in the fight against global warming.
The Challenge of Seed Collection
To restore degraded seagrass habitats, it is essential to collect and replant seagrass seeds. Traditionally, this process has involved volunteers wading, snorkeling, or diving to gather seeds, which can be labor-intensive and limited by the number of available volunteers. The manual collection of seeds is not only time-consuming but also poses challenges in terms of safety and efficiency.
The Underwater Seed Harvester Project
Recognizing the need for a more efficient method of seed collection, Project Seagrass has initiated the development of an underwater seed harvester. This innovative technology aims to automate the seed collection process, making it quicker and more efficient.
-
Building on Previous Research: The concept of an underwater seed harvester is not entirely new. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science developed a prototype 20 years ago, but Project Seagrass is adapting and improving upon this design to suit different environmental conditions.
-
Prototype Development: The team at Project Seagrass has conducted extensive trials to ensure that the harvester does not negatively impact the seagrass. They have demonstrated that cutting the seagrass to a certain height—akin to giving it a "haircut"—does not harm the plant and allows for the collection of seeds that float to the surface during specific times of the year.
-
Efficiency and Scale: The harvester is designed to be towed behind a vessel at a controlled speed, allowing for the collection of a significant number of seeds in a short amount of time. In healthy seagrass meadows, there can be anywhere from 100 to 10,000 seeds per square meter, meaning that the potential for seed collection is immense.
-
Future Plans: Once the crowdfunding campaign is successful, the team plans to finalize the design and test the harvester in the field. They aim to refine the technology further and explore its applicability in various regions around the world, ultimately contributing to the restoration of seagrass habitats globally.
Conclusion
The underwater seed harvester project represents a significant step forward in seagrass restoration efforts. By automating the seed collection process, Project Seagrass aims to enhance the efficiency of restoration activities, ultimately leading to healthier coastal ecosystems. Supporting this initiative through crowdfunding not only aids in the development of this innovative technology but also contributes to the broader goal of conserving and restoring vital seagrass habitats worldwide.
The initial prototype of the seed harvester developed by Project Seagrass has provided promising results regarding its impact on seagrass health. Through a series of trials, researchers found that cutting the seagrass to collect seeds does not negatively affect its overall health, effectively demonstrating that this process is akin to giving the seagrass a "haircut."
Key Findings from the Prototype Trials
-
Methodology of the Trials: The team conducted experiments comparing areas of seagrass that were cut using the prototype harvester against areas that remained untouched. They established transect lines underwater to monitor the health of the seagrass over time. Divers were involved in both cutting the seagrass with shears and using the prototype sled to collect seeds.
-
Results of the Cutting: The results indicated no significant difference in the health of the seagrass between the cut areas and the natural populations that had not been impacted. This finding is crucial as it suggests that the seagrass can withstand this form of harvesting without suffering detrimental effects.
-
Growth Rates: Seagrass is known for its resilience and rapid growth. After the cutting, new shoots began to emerge quickly, with growth rates of three to four centimeters in just a few weeks during the peak summer period. This rapid turnover reinforces the idea that cutting the seagrass merely stimulates growth rather than harming it.
-
Ecological Context: The natural grazing behavior of various marine animals, such as turtles and geese, further supports the notion that seagrass can recover from cutting. These animals regularly graze on seagrass, and the plants have adapted to this natural form of pruning. The prototype's cutting method mimics this natural process, allowing the seagrass to thrive post-harvest.
-
Regulatory Approval: The successful trials have also led to increased confidence among regulators. Initially, there was concern about the potential impact of cutting seagrass, but the evidence gathered from the trials has helped to alleviate these fears. The regulators in Wales, who were initially apprehensive, have begun to understand that the cutting method is not harmful and can be a sustainable practice for seed collection.
00:00:00,128 --> 00:00:03,310
Oftentimes when we protect the planet and we start to look at the ocean and
2
00:00:03,790 --> 00:00:06,912
restore habitats and protect habitats, there are a lot
3
00:00:06,932 --> 00:00:10,413
of challenges that come in that way. And oftentimes we
4
00:00:10,473 --> 00:00:13,655
have to automate things to make sure that we can do things more
5
00:00:13,675 --> 00:00:16,757
efficiently and quicker. Today is
6
00:00:16,857 --> 00:00:20,099
one of those times where we are looking at
7
00:00:20,279 --> 00:00:23,580
a project from Project Seagrass to have a seed
8
00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:27,323
harvester to help gather seeds from
9
00:00:27,343 --> 00:00:30,666
seagrass meadows and be able to help use those seeds
10
00:00:30,726 --> 00:00:34,329
to restore in other places because there are a lot of seagrass habitats
11
00:00:34,389 --> 00:00:38,072
to this day that are still being degraded and we need to restore them. As
12
00:00:38,253 --> 00:00:41,696
many of you know, seagrass habitats are extremely important coastal habitats. They
13
00:00:42,376 --> 00:00:45,559
contribute to biodiversity. They're one of the most biodiverse habitats on
14
00:00:45,599 --> 00:00:49,202
the planet, as well as our security of our coastline and
15
00:00:49,222 --> 00:00:52,605
they're great blue carbon habitat, meaning that they sequester carbon
16
00:00:52,921 --> 00:00:56,163
So it's great in the fight against climate change. So it's always important to
17
00:00:56,663 --> 00:01:00,566
save these and protect these seagrass habitats. And Project Seagrass is
18
00:01:00,606 --> 00:01:03,728
here to do that. And they came on the podcast. I asked them
19
00:01:03,748 --> 00:01:07,450
on the podcast because I saw they're doing a crowd funder for this technology
20
00:01:07,831 --> 00:01:12,094
to help better restore seagrass habitats. They want
21
00:01:12,134 --> 00:01:15,256
to create and build a seed harvester for
22
00:01:15,296 --> 00:01:18,598
seagrasses. And I think it was important to help them with
23
00:01:18,618 --> 00:01:22,620
their crowd funder. So I thought I'd have... Dr. Richard Unsworth, who
24
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,261
is the scientific officer, the chief scientific officer for Seagrass,
25
00:01:26,541 --> 00:01:30,162
Project Seagrass, on the podcast to discuss this
26
00:01:30,222 --> 00:01:33,463
project and this crowdfunder so that you can get more information. And if
27
00:01:33,723 --> 00:01:36,804
you feel comfortable and you're able to, I recommend you donate. I'm
28
00:01:36,824 --> 00:01:40,445
gonna be donating as well, so I recommend that you donate to
29
00:01:40,505 --> 00:01:44,586
this project. But here is the episode on the seed harvester. Enjoy
30
00:01:44,606 --> 00:01:51,439
the episode. Let's start the show. Hey
31
00:01:51,459 --> 00:01:54,843
everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
32
00:01:54,863 --> 00:01:58,147
your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with
33
00:01:58,167 --> 00:02:01,472
the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live
34
00:02:01,612 --> 00:02:04,896
for a better ocean by taking action. Now on today's episode, we
35
00:02:04,936 --> 00:02:08,179
have a very special one because we don't get to do this all the time. One of the things
36
00:02:08,199 --> 00:02:11,302
that I did want to do when I started this podcast was be
37
00:02:11,362 --> 00:02:15,144
able to help people complete their projects and be able to communicate
38
00:02:15,184 --> 00:02:19,287
those projects. And with Project Seagrass, since the get-go, I've always
39
00:02:19,327 --> 00:02:22,649
wanted to be involved in helping them spread the word because they've done such a great
40
00:02:22,709 --> 00:02:43,068
job at I'm going the
41
00:02:43,108 --> 00:03:00,128
sea. Please
42
00:03:00,189 --> 00:03:03,611
go to the link in the show notes or in the description depending on where you're watching
43
00:03:03,651 --> 00:03:07,154
this or listening to this and feel free to donate. They
44
00:03:07,174 --> 00:03:11,237
have about 10 days left as of this posting this recording and
45
00:03:11,618 --> 00:03:14,760
it's really important that you do. So I appreciate anybody who
46
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,003
does this. Here's the interview with Dr. Richard Unsworth talking about
47
00:03:18,043 --> 00:03:21,205
the underwater seed harvester to restore seagrasses. Enjoy and we'll
48
00:03:21,245 --> 00:03:24,588
talk to you after. Hey Richard, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean
49
00:03:27,395 --> 00:03:31,000
Yes, always happy to talk seagrass and lovely to
50
00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:34,525
be back on this show. We chatted
51
00:03:34,545 --> 00:03:37,729
a few years ago and it's nice to catch up again to talk about
52
00:03:41,565 --> 00:03:45,068
Absolutely. I can't wait to talk about this project. We're
53
00:03:45,088 --> 00:03:48,491
going to be talking about a crowdfunding project that Project Seagrass is
54
00:03:48,531 --> 00:03:51,854
putting on. It is called Underwater Sea Harvester to
55
00:03:51,894 --> 00:03:55,217
restore seagrass. This is something that's pretty
56
00:03:55,317 --> 00:03:58,680
innovative. Has there been anything like this that you've seen before?
57
00:03:59,170 --> 00:04:02,452
Well, yes, there has, to be honest. We
58
00:04:02,473 --> 00:04:06,516
didn't lead the way here. The
59
00:04:06,536 --> 00:04:09,678
Virginia Institute of Marine Science actually led the
60
00:04:09,718 --> 00:04:13,200
way with something like this 20 years
61
00:04:13,241 --> 00:04:16,803
ago. They built a sort of a prototype
62
00:04:16,843 --> 00:04:20,146
system where they were working in
63
00:04:20,706 --> 00:04:24,769
very, very sheltered and consistently shallow habitats.
64
00:04:24,969 --> 00:04:28,232
And they were able to do something with a little bit more
65
00:04:28,272 --> 00:04:31,934
of a sort of a more simple mechanism
66
00:04:32,695 --> 00:04:36,139
and We couldn't we couldn't facilitate that so because
67
00:04:36,159 --> 00:04:39,563
we're working slightly different less stable
68
00:04:42,906 --> 00:04:46,428
Very nice. I love that. I love that. We're going to talk more about the
69
00:04:46,488 --> 00:04:49,711
Project Seagrass, this project about seagrass, of course. And
70
00:04:49,731 --> 00:04:52,853
I can't wait to do that. But why don't we just step back
71
00:04:52,893 --> 00:04:56,075
a little bit? I just want people, I just want to remind people of what
72
00:04:59,557 --> 00:05:03,079
So I'm Richard Unsworth, associate professor at Swansea University,
73
00:05:03,099 --> 00:05:06,882
but I'm also the chief science officer for
74
00:05:07,162 --> 00:05:10,391
Project Seagrass. So Project Seagrass is the the
75
00:05:10,631 --> 00:05:13,833
only internationally focused charity that's
76
00:05:13,853 --> 00:05:17,334
completely dedicated to saving
77
00:05:17,354 --> 00:05:20,635
the world's seagrass. That's all we do. We
78
00:05:20,655 --> 00:05:25,137
do research, we do conservation with
79
00:05:26,418 --> 00:05:29,819
that broader aim of trying to conserve and
80
00:05:32,270 --> 00:05:36,133
It's amazing. And the work that you guys have done has been absolutely amazing. You
81
00:05:36,193 --> 00:05:39,636
continue to lead. I feel like a lot of the
82
00:05:39,897 --> 00:05:43,079
innovative, like, I guess that the initiatives that are
83
00:05:43,119 --> 00:05:46,422
going around with Seagrass, I mean, we've had a part, a lot
84
00:05:46,642 --> 00:05:50,606
of your team on the broadcast in the past to talk about mapping
85
00:05:50,686 --> 00:05:54,168
seagrass and sort of working at workshops with seagrass.
86
00:05:54,228 --> 00:05:58,271
And it's been absolutely amazing to see the progress of the organization
87
00:05:58,472 --> 00:06:01,814
just growing and building. And I just, I love seeing that.
88
00:06:01,854 --> 00:06:05,117
So super happy to have you back to be able to talk
89
00:06:05,137 --> 00:06:08,299
about another incredible project. So
90
00:06:08,339 --> 00:06:12,102
where did this, so the idea I guess came from this initial
91
00:06:12,182 --> 00:06:15,404
prototype, but where did it build off from?
92
00:06:15,424 --> 00:06:18,807
Like why did you guys decide, hey, this is something that we can build upon
93
00:06:19,807 --> 00:06:23,549
Let's try putting ourselves in the tech world a little bit and
94
00:06:25,950 --> 00:06:29,172
As it stands, each year we and
95
00:06:29,312 --> 00:06:33,114
other organizations send lots of people out into
96
00:06:33,174 --> 00:06:36,956
the shallow waters around Europe, America,
97
00:06:36,976 --> 00:06:40,518
other places around the world, collecting seagrass seeds.
98
00:06:41,978 --> 00:06:45,742
These CRS seeds are not like, you're not picking individual seeds, but
99
00:06:45,762 --> 00:06:49,745
you're picking a spade of seeds. Think
100
00:06:49,805 --> 00:06:55,110
of something a bit more analogous to a
101
00:06:55,150 --> 00:06:59,834
group of seeds on a stem of wheat. So
102
00:06:59,854 --> 00:07:03,898
we're picking those reproductive shoots containing
103
00:07:03,938 --> 00:07:07,483
those spades from CRS meadows and in
104
00:07:07,523 --> 00:07:11,545
shallow waters for replanting this
105
00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:15,307
vital habitat. And sometimes
106
00:07:15,347 --> 00:07:18,769
that's people wading in shallow water. Sometimes
107
00:07:18,809 --> 00:07:22,151
it's people snorkeling. Sometimes it's people diving. But
108
00:07:22,171 --> 00:07:25,892
the reality here is that it's
109
00:07:25,952 --> 00:07:29,514
hard work. There's a lot of effort that goes into collecting
110
00:07:29,554 --> 00:07:33,316
these seeds. Managing
111
00:07:33,376 --> 00:07:36,730
people is a lot of work. But we're fortunate enough
112
00:07:36,750 --> 00:07:40,152
to have a lot of volunteers and people who want to come and help and get involved with
113
00:07:40,172 --> 00:07:45,336
that. But still, it means that. Improving
114
00:07:45,396 --> 00:07:48,998
seagrass restoration, making it bigger is very much dependent upon
115
00:07:49,059 --> 00:07:52,201
how many people you can get involved in. You know, there
116
00:07:52,221 --> 00:07:55,483
are limitations around that sometimes in terms of safety, in terms of
117
00:07:55,563 --> 00:07:58,865
other factors playing into it. So to
118
00:07:58,945 --> 00:08:02,828
actually think bigger, we needed to to
119
00:08:02,868 --> 00:08:06,475
find a way that we could collect these seeds in a more automated
120
00:08:06,575 --> 00:08:11,278
mechanized manner and obviously the
121
00:08:11,458 --> 00:08:14,980
idea of taking some sort of glorified lawnmower to
122
00:08:15,020 --> 00:08:18,082
some seagrass to collect some seagrass seeds is quite a
123
00:08:18,402 --> 00:08:22,625
horrific idea but that's what we're
124
00:08:22,645 --> 00:08:26,408
talking about here and we
125
00:08:26,468 --> 00:08:29,890
looked at the system that had been developed in
126
00:08:30,070 --> 00:08:34,458
Virginia and We
127
00:08:35,038 --> 00:08:38,661
spoke with the regulators in Wales,
128
00:08:38,801 --> 00:08:42,043
in the UK, about developing something on
129
00:08:42,123 --> 00:08:45,265
us. And unsurprisingly, they
130
00:08:45,285 --> 00:08:48,848
were pretty much horrified at the idea of us taking a cutting device
131
00:08:48,948 --> 00:08:52,731
to seagrass. On one hand, we're saying we need to protect seagrass.
132
00:08:53,051 --> 00:08:56,233
And on the other hand, we're saying, oh, can we
133
00:08:56,253 --> 00:08:59,415
take a little moment to it? So there's a bit of a
134
00:09:00,476 --> 00:09:03,922
mismatch there, shall we say. But what we were actually
135
00:09:04,042 --> 00:09:07,963
advocating for is having a, not
136
00:09:08,003 --> 00:09:11,664
a lawnmower that cuts the seagrass to really short, but
137
00:09:11,684 --> 00:09:15,325
something that basically just gives the seagrass a haircut. And
138
00:09:15,365 --> 00:09:19,106
that haircut is a sort of 20 centimeter
139
00:09:19,166 --> 00:09:22,546
depth, the length of seagrass. And the
140
00:09:22,646 --> 00:09:26,307
idea here is that particular parts of the summer period,
141
00:09:26,907 --> 00:09:31,898
you get a huge bloom of Of
142
00:09:31,938 --> 00:09:35,661
these seeds being produced by by seagrass and at particular time
143
00:09:36,722 --> 00:09:39,924
Of that period they'll be floating up into
144
00:09:39,944 --> 00:09:44,048
the water column sticking pride proudly out and
145
00:09:44,368 --> 00:09:47,910
at that point in time if you can Basically give
146
00:09:47,950 --> 00:09:51,173
the the seagrass a haircut at a particular height Then
147
00:09:51,213 --> 00:09:55,096
you'll collect a huge amount of these of
148
00:09:55,116 --> 00:09:59,059
these seagrass seeds But there
149
00:09:59,259 --> 00:10:04,083
is this this sort of fear of impacting
150
00:10:04,183 --> 00:10:07,225
the seagrass. So we had a bit of a
151
00:10:07,285 --> 00:10:10,668
step back and what we did is we
152
00:10:10,708 --> 00:10:15,592
developed a very sort of basic
153
00:10:15,732 --> 00:10:19,295
prototype, shall we call it, of a cutting machine
154
00:10:20,435 --> 00:10:23,778
and we developed with the regulator in
155
00:10:23,838 --> 00:10:27,381
Wales, Natural Resources Wales, together with them we developed a
156
00:10:27,421 --> 00:10:31,767
whole experimental project of like how we could determine
157
00:10:31,787 --> 00:10:35,372
whether this thing was going to impact the seagrass or not. So
158
00:10:36,013 --> 00:10:39,117
we had a whole load of transects lines under the
159
00:10:39,177 --> 00:10:42,783
water that we set up that were permanently marked.
160
00:10:44,326 --> 00:10:47,727
And we had divers going along some of these with a pair of shears,
161
00:10:48,127 --> 00:10:51,248
cutting the seagrass. We
162
00:10:51,288 --> 00:10:55,009
had somewhere, we had this sled, this
163
00:10:55,049 --> 00:10:58,689
prototype, which was cutting, didn't operate very well, but it operated enough
164
00:10:58,729 --> 00:11:01,970
that we could tow it for 20 meters and cut
165
00:11:01,990 --> 00:11:05,351
some seagrass. We compared these
166
00:11:05,391 --> 00:11:08,872
different trials against the
167
00:11:08,992 --> 00:11:13,293
abundance of natural seagrass that hadn't been impacted.
168
00:11:14,047 --> 00:11:17,269
And so we run that program for a couple of
169
00:11:17,310 --> 00:11:20,732
years, did it repeat. And what we saw is
170
00:11:20,772 --> 00:11:24,495
that there is no impact of that cutter
171
00:11:25,475 --> 00:11:29,298
because basically we're just giving it a haircut. And in
172
00:11:29,318 --> 00:11:32,661
some ways, you know, that might be a surprise, but in
173
00:11:32,721 --> 00:11:36,263
other ways not, because seagrasses all
174
00:11:36,283 --> 00:11:39,566
around the world, whether you talk about them in the tropics or you're talking about them
175
00:11:40,266 --> 00:11:44,119
in temperate climes, They're grazed. Animals
176
00:11:44,259 --> 00:11:47,362
like to eat seagrass. Of course. So we have Brent geese in the
177
00:11:47,402 --> 00:11:50,744
temperate realm and some of our colleagues who
178
00:11:50,764 --> 00:11:54,447
work on the Isle of Wight were recently down there and they witnessed
179
00:11:54,487 --> 00:11:58,150
lots of swans grazing, chomping away all
180
00:11:58,190 --> 00:12:01,752
afternoon at the seagrass. In the tropics we see dugongs, we
181
00:12:01,772 --> 00:12:04,935
see turtles, there's some types of fish. So it's
182
00:12:04,975 --> 00:12:08,217
not really a surprise that if you chop
183
00:12:08,237 --> 00:12:11,527
the seagrass it grows back. And we're
184
00:12:11,547 --> 00:12:15,108
not digging up the rhizomes or the roots. We're just basically
185
00:12:15,168 --> 00:12:18,270
cutting the shoots to a
186
00:12:18,350 --> 00:12:22,112
reduced height. And what we saw is that there is no impact.
187
00:12:22,372 --> 00:12:26,093
The seagrass remains healthy. It's doing very well. And
188
00:12:26,433 --> 00:12:30,675
when you compare that seagrass against natural populations
189
00:12:30,715 --> 00:12:34,097
that haven't been impacted, there is no difference.
190
00:12:34,653 --> 00:12:37,936
So it's great to see that and we've just
191
00:12:37,997 --> 00:12:41,500
recently written up all that information into an academic
192
00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:44,984
paper because we thought it was a key point to be able to prove
193
00:12:45,744 --> 00:12:50,069
that what we're doing is not impacting the
194
00:12:50,109 --> 00:12:53,412
seagrass. So we're in this situation, we've
195
00:12:53,472 --> 00:12:57,079
got a a prototype that it worked
196
00:12:57,399 --> 00:13:00,541
a bit, but enough to run the
197
00:13:00,601 --> 00:13:04,344
trial. We now had
198
00:13:04,464 --> 00:13:08,146
greater assurance that if we did
199
00:13:08,186 --> 00:13:11,768
this, we're not going to impact the seagrass. The regulators are
200
00:13:12,008 --> 00:13:15,110
beginning to understand that. We're able to
201
00:13:15,170 --> 00:13:18,712
get a bit more permission to use a system at larger scale.
202
00:13:19,152 --> 00:13:22,414
We just need that system. And that's
203
00:13:24,601 --> 00:13:27,822
Yeah, great project. I would imagine the
204
00:13:27,902 --> 00:13:31,664
cutting of the seagrass would almost be a bit of like a pruning in a garden, right?
205
00:13:31,704 --> 00:13:35,706
Where you're just pruning, you want it to grow back. What
206
00:13:35,746 --> 00:13:38,907
are the rates, and I know it's probably different for each species of
207
00:13:38,947 --> 00:13:42,309
seagrass, but what are the rates of growth? Do they grow back fairly
208
00:13:42,369 --> 00:13:45,590
quickly when you did that study year over year? Did you find like the
209
00:13:50,172 --> 00:13:53,790
The following year there was no difference. Yeah, and and
210
00:13:54,251 --> 00:13:57,353
it was even even after we'd cut it
211
00:13:57,373 --> 00:14:01,136
was quite difficult to actually see some of the impacts because
212
00:14:02,157 --> 00:14:05,460
As we were had taking a blade over the seagrass a lot of the seagrass
213
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,883
has also been pushed down So we didn't cut it all And
214
00:14:09,903 --> 00:14:13,426
so you actually you don't tend to cease even
215
00:14:13,626 --> 00:14:17,497
that much of an impact but but you know new
216
00:14:17,557 --> 00:14:20,838
shoots pop up every, every few weeks, you know,
217
00:14:20,858 --> 00:14:24,560
um, you'll get like in the height of summer, they'll be growing, uh,
218
00:14:24,620 --> 00:14:28,541
very rapidly, you know, uh, over a few weeks period,
219
00:14:28,561 --> 00:14:31,782
you're going to get three, four centimeters of growth on a, on a shoot. So it's
220
00:14:31,822 --> 00:14:35,283
like, you know, really, really rapid turnover. So,
221
00:14:35,303 --> 00:14:38,845
um, cuts it. And, you know, so long as you're not damaging the
222
00:14:38,885 --> 00:14:42,526
actual root, the rhizome that's underpinning it, then
223
00:14:46,580 --> 00:14:50,963
Fantastic. Now, for the seeds that you do collect, and
224
00:14:50,983 --> 00:14:54,405
whether it's by humans harvesting them or the seed
225
00:14:58,147 --> 00:15:01,769
So at Project Seagrass, we have a whole range of
226
00:15:01,889 --> 00:15:05,351
programs around the UK. Some of those are very
227
00:15:06,131 --> 00:15:10,034
applied restoration, where we're trying to actually conduct
228
00:15:10,054 --> 00:15:14,116
large-scale restoration. Some of them are very experimental,
229
00:15:14,156 --> 00:15:17,322
where we're trying to learn about some of
230
00:15:17,342 --> 00:15:21,183
the intricacies in the ways we replant seagrass.
231
00:15:21,683 --> 00:15:25,344
But broadly, all that seed is being used to
232
00:15:25,424 --> 00:15:28,865
bring back these habitats, because whether it's in
233
00:15:29,065 --> 00:15:32,586
the UK, whether it's in Indonesia, whether
234
00:15:32,646 --> 00:15:35,767
it's in Japan, wherever around the
235
00:15:35,807 --> 00:15:40,808
world, we have seen huge amounts of seagrass loss. Seagrass
236
00:15:40,888 --> 00:15:44,229
is often referred to as the canary in the coal mine.
237
00:15:44,579 --> 00:15:50,044
or the canary in the ocean, really, that where
238
00:15:50,084 --> 00:15:53,307
we've lost seagrass, it's really an indicator of
239
00:15:53,347 --> 00:15:56,651
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