Scottish community revives seagrass meadows with 97% shoot survival

Britain's seagrass meadows have suffered decades of decline, but a community-led project on Scotland's west coast is showing that restoring them may not always require starting from seeds. Seawilding, a Scottish marine restoration charity, has been experimenting with transplanting mature Zostera marina shoots from healthy donor meadows into areas where seagrass has been lost. The approach has produced striking early results at Loch Craignish in Argyll, including a 97% survival rate in a 2025 trial. In another restoration plot, seabed coverage increased from 10% to more than 70% within 15 months. Together, the trials have created about 0.3 hectares of new seagrass habitat, offering a promising alternative for restoring an ecosystem that supports marine life, stabilises sediments and stores carbon.Scotland's disappearing seagrass gets a new restoration approachSeagrasses are flowering marine plants that form underwater meadows in shallow coastal waters. Scotland has two native species, Zostera marina and Zostera noltii, with Z. marina, commonly known as eelgrass, occurring widely along the country's coastline. These habitats provide nursery and feeding areas for marine organisms, hel...