One of the first things you can do when you find a patch of seagrass or a seagrass meadow, is to use Seagrass Spotter to log its location. Seagrass Spotter is a citizen science tool which has been designed to help map and record seagrass presence, at a global scale. Alternatively, get in touch with your local wildlife trust, regional environmental NGO or statutory body to inform them of your finding, as it may not be logged in their records.

By logging sightings of seagrass on Seagrass Spotter or by informing your local wildlife trust, environmental NGO or regional or national regulatory body, the information you supply can help contribute to future monitoring, conservation or restoration measures. Moreover, by bringing the sighting to the attention of relevant groups and organisations, they may be able to provide support to you or your group regarding next steps to gather further information for that patch or meadow. Lastly, the information can contribute to marine spatial planning measures in coastal waters, which can influence decisions related to coastal or marine developments.

There are several community organisations, environmental NGOs and regulatory bodies working on various aspects of seagrass ecology, conservation and restoration, here in Scotland. There are many coastal community organisations spread along Scotland’s coastline who are helping to map, monitor and restore seagrass. Similarly, there are several environmental NGOs working on conserving and restoring seagrass in Scottish waters. Explore our Membership page to discover some of the community groups and environmental NGOs working on seagrass conservation and restoration within Scottish waters. The map at the bottom of the Membership page will help locate where your closest group may be.

Identifying whether a seagrass meadow is healthy or unhealthy is difficult to infer visually and will involve the interpreter exploring different biotic and abiotic metrics to answer this question. Unfortunately, there is not one unifying metric for measuring the health or condition of seagrass meadows. However, there are a series of different structural and environmental metrics that be recorded to provide inferences into the condition of a seagrass meadow. Common parameters that are used to assess the structural component of a meadow include: shoot density (shoot m-2), canopy cover (%), canopy height (cm) and patch size. Structural metrics are routinely used due to their sensitivity to disturbance or chronic stress and the relative ease to record them. Complimentary environmental parameters to record include light availability, water temperature, nutrient concentration, sediment characteristics and epiphyte load. Alternative metrics exist, which include biomass and productivity, physiological condition, demographic population, reproductive, community and ecosystem function. Each metric will provide different insights into the health and complexity of a seagrass meadow, and the metric selection will be decided by the initial question or hypothesis being asked.

Priority Marine Features are a list of habitats and species which are recognised for their conservation importance. In Scotland there are 81 listed habitats and species, which are subject to greater focus to help steer conservation actions, research, and education to support their protection. Seagrass is one of the listed Priority Marine Features in recognition of its ecological and conservation importance.

To qualify as a seagrass bed, Nature Scot requires a minimum area of 5 x 5 m containing at least 5% coverage of seagrass. This closely follows the definition established by OSPAR, which states a Zostera ‘bed’ as having densities of seagrass that provide at least 5% coverage (OSPAR, 2009).