2025 has been another cracking year for our seagrass restoration project. After four years of trialing different restoration methodologies, with mixed success, we now have conclusive proof that the translocation of seagrass shoots can lead to the rapid growth of seagrass meadows.

For the last 10 years, efforts around the UK have focused on restoring seagrass habitat mainly by sowing seagrass seeds. Yet success has been limited, with few examples of widespread seagrass habitats becoming established.

Since 2024, Seawilding has been trialing a new approach, transplanting tens of thousands of adult shoots from existing seagrass “donor” meadows to remarkable effect. Since July 2024, a newly planted area saw an increase in seabed coverage from 10% to more than 70% in just 15 months, while in 2025 a new trial achieved 97% survival of transplanted seagrass shoots and an average four-fold increase in seabed coverage in just 6 months. Altogether, this has resulted in an area of 0.3 hectares of newly created seagrass habitat. Crucially, the impact of shoot extraction from the existing donor meadow is negligible. Even when harvested at 25% across a trial plot, in just 5 months shoot density was back to near-natural levels.