Gill Melling - Geopark Artist Residency - Research

This is a prime example of how a chain form a body or anchor can drag along the seabed and potentially pull up and destroy seagrass. Visit @oceanconservationtrust and @seahorsetrust to sea examples of eco moorings which raise or remove the chain from the seabed completely. Anchoring to eco moorings is crucial in preserving the seagrass beds and our precious carbon store and oxygen producer. Seagrass is vital to providing us with the air we breath and helps to prevent climate change by being 35% more efficient in carbon capture and sequestration than rainforest. We need it! #carboncapture#bluemeadowsproject #geoparkartistresidencies

Torre Abbey Sands snorkel visiting the seagrass and the creatures that inhabit. Intriguing and mesmerising.

Some spare seagrass seeds to experiment with. I will be trying to dry them out. 

Very interesting research visit to see the Seagrass labs for the Blue Meadows Project at the National Marine Aquarium. Amelia showed me round to see how they collect and grow the seagrass for re-populating areas of the seagrass meadows. They collect seagrass seeds in late summer and Autumn and then after sorting the seeds into those that are viable and non-viable they cultivate them under strict conditions in the lab. I am hoping to include some the seeds they don’t need in one of my projects.

#geoparkgm24 #geoparkresidencies