We are attending a meeting tomorrow at Poole to discuss Studland Bay becoming a Marine Conservation Zone. It has been a very long very slow process but we have kept going and kept pressure on to make this highly vulnerable site protected. The seagrass has fragmented and is being destroyed and the seahorse numbers have crashed from 40 in 2008 down to 4 in 2013 (non so far this year), despite The Seahorse Trust getting them protected under the Wil…life and Countryside Act in 2008. We know the problems facing the seahorses and the seagrass but to date the authorities have refused to do anything to protect the site (despite the law).
We hope the making of Studland into a Marine Conservation Zone will be the start of a management process to try and restore this beautiful bay so the seahorses and seagrass can thrive again. The donations below and others we receive (from individuals and organisations like the Sealife Centres) mean that we can get on with this vital job; every bit of the sea or countryside that is lost, is lost forever. We hear about rainforests needing protection, which is vital to the planet but the seagrass meadows are our underwater rainforests (equally vital to the planet) with a stunning array of species living in them. As Ben from Project Seagrass (please see our facebook page) says they are vital to our planet as carbon sinks, wave diffusers to stop coastal erosion and as homes to a multitude of species.
Again thank you for your incredible support without you we would not have got this far, your donations have allowed us to undertake research and to lobby those that need to listen, if we had not lobbied so hard we would not be having this meeting tomorrow and we need to make them listen to make this beautiful bay preserved for the future of our planet.
