How communities are helping to revive seagrass in Wales

Seagrass Ocean Rescue North Wales is aiming to create 25 acres of seagrass — the size of 10 rugby pitches — working with the community to collect five million seeds by the end of 2026

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Seagrass at Porthdinllaen, Gwynedd. Inset, young volunteer Aled

IT'S 6am on a drizzly morning at Porthdinlaen beach, Gwynedd, and five-year-old Aled is knee-deep in the water, helping to protect this coastline long into his old age.

He's taking part in one of the biggest seagrass restoration projects in the UK, possibly Europe a project showing what can happen when you involve the community in hands-on solutions to fighting climate change.

Seagrasses, the only flowering plants able to live in seawater, create multiple benefits for current and future generations. They filter pollutants and clean our seas, reducing coastal erosion. Seagrass meadows also trap carbon within the seabed and if left undisturbed, can store this for millennia.

But the UK has lost up to 92% of its seagrass meadows in the last century. Within Wales, extensive loss has also occurred. Now Seagrass Ocean Rescue North Wales is aiming to create 25 acres of it (the size of 10 rugby pitches), working with the community to collect five million seeds, by the end of 2026.

The project is an example of Cymru Can in action the strategy launched by the Future Generations Commissioner, Derek Walker, encouraging public bodies to use the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales is the only country with one) to quickly create change with legacy. It's an initiative that also supports several of his nature recommendations to Welsh Government, including a target for nature that echoes our climate targets.