Stronger Shores Seagrass Project Shines on New Carbon Copy Podcast Episode
Stronger Shores

An innovative marine ecology project being implemented as part of the Stronger Shores programme is spotlighted in a new episode of the Carbon Copy Podcast.

Podcast host Isabelle Sparrow and producer Bradley Ingham, met Judy Power, Project Manager at Stronger Shores’ delivery partner Tees Rivers Trust, at the seagrass nursery, based at PD Port Hartlepool.


“We had sites all around the estuary: both different (seagrass) species right up until the 1950s; but industrial development, water quality and wasting disease – there was a pathogen as well – that just decimated what we had. The final recording of seagrass was 1969,”

Judy explains on the pod

Seagrass is hugely important: it provides habitat for many small fish species and invertebrates, it can help slow down climate change through its impressive ability to sequester carbon, it can also dampen the force of storm waves and surges, meaning it has great potential as a form of natural coastal flood defence. 

The Stronger Shores programme, delivered by a consortium of organisations including local authorities, academic institutions and charities like Tees Rivers Trust, is trialling innovative ways to use harness this protective possibility, with a hope to create sustainable, longer-term solutions to coastal flood risks. The programme is funded by Defra as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes which is managed by the Environment Agency.

“Two years ago,” Judy continues, “we collected these [plants]. We sucked up the seeds, we processed the seeds. We planted them in January, as you would a normal plant except we grow them in water… we had the first flowering plants in the whole country, we were quite impressed with that!

“We collected the seeds from last year’s harvest, and we’ve re-sown them this year, and [the plants that have now grown] have come from those plants. So they are, realistically, the true first seagrass plants grown in Teesside since 1969.” 

Carbon Copy is a UK charity inspiring more big-thinking local action for climate and nature. In this series of its podcast, the organisation is sharing stories about nature from across the country.

“I honestly could have listened to Judy speak about seagrass all day,” said podcast host Isabelle. “It’s quite an unassuming looking thing, it just looks like normal grass – but it has such an important role to play in tackling both the causes and effects of climate change.”

To learn more about the Stronger Shores programme, listen to All Nature: Sowing The Sea on the Carbon Copy website or wherever you get your podcasts.


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