We are proud to announce that holidaycottages.co.uk is supporting the Marine Conservation Society in its vital work to preserve seagrass meadows on the south coast of England. While much of the sea’s inhabitants are hidden underwater, they are a vitally important part of our planet, and they need our help to ensure a thriving future. With our coastal regions being such popular holiday destinations, and over 250,000 people holidaying by the sea with us each year, we know the importance of protecting and preserving our coastlines for years to come.
What is the Marine Conservation Society?
The Marine Conservation Society is an organisation that sees scientists, campaigners and volunteers from across a broad range of backgrounds coming together to help secure a more sustainable future for our seas. With a wide range of campaigns including reducing litter from the source, preventing microfibres from entering the sea, and saving our seagrass – an essential underwater species that absorbs CO2 – the educational messages that the Marine Conservation Society shares are essential, and we’re proud to support the charity by spreading the word.
What is our commitment to the Marine Conservation Society?
We are a company member of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and will be supporting its initiatives throughout the year by sharing information and opportunities to get involved with our staff, guests and owners. Celebrating the beauty of our natural environment is something that is ingrained into everything we do, and we’re very aware that we need to protect and preserve our marine habitats for future generations to enjoy them in the same way that we do today.
The Marine Conservation Society has already helped educate us by running a number of inspiring sessions with our team, thereby heightening our passion for protecting our planet, and we’re really looking forward to moving further into strengthening our relationship in the coming months and years.
The secrets of seagrass
We're proud to partner with the Marine Conservation Society to help restore seagrass meadows. Read on to discover more about this fascinating plant, or click the button below to see how you can help.
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Working together to protect seagrass
Photo credit: Alex Mustard
What is seagrass?
Seagrass is a flowering plant that lives underwater around the UK’s coast in shallow, sheltered locations on the seabed. It forms marine meadows that work as highly productive ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots. These seagrass meadows are known as the 'lungs of the ocean'. They are a vital natural component for sustaining life beneath the waves for millions of sea creatures and plants. Just one square metre generates 10 litres of oxygen per day through photosynthesis. Therefore, seagrass produces more oxygen than an equivalent area of rainforest over the same length of time.
Our pledge to preserve more seagrass meadows
Support from holidaycottages.co.uk will contribute towards numerous collaborative projects, focusing on the south coast of England, to restore and conserve seagrass habitats. The projects will ensure that seagrass meadows and the seabed are restored and protected through measures including Advanced Mooring Systems in marinas as well as campaigns to improve water quality, reduce damaging overfishing and safeguard marine protected areas.
The contribution from holidaycottages.co.uk for 2023 could help protect 50,000 square metres (or 2.5 hectares) of unique seagrass habitat along the south coast of England. A healthy seagrass area of this size has the potential to sequester 4,125 tonnes of carbon.
Why seagrass meadow preservation is important
Seagrass’ role in the fight against global warming is to absorb carbon buried in ocean sediment, sequestering 10% every year. This makes seagrass a brilliant weapon in the battle to halt the warming of our planet. It has been estimated that seagrass around our shores can absorb and store at least as much carbon per hectare as trees in UK woodlands.
A world without seagrass meadows will contribute to a global catastrophe
Vast areas of seagrass have been lost or damaged amounting to at least 35% of the world’s meadows. MCS has been on a vital mission to protect the remaining seagrass habitats to safeguard sealife for the future and to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.
What can be done to protect seagrass meadows?
The main threat to seagrass meadows around the world is human interaction. A lot of damage is caused by ships and boats at anchor – dragged anchors and their chains can cause a lot of destruction that ultimately leads to a loss of habitat. The MCS is raising awareness of and replacing traditional moorings with advanced mooring systems, where the chains are raised off the seabed. This is one way we can revitalise damaged marine meadows. After a successful series of trials, there are plans afoot by the MCS to introduce new mooring aids to five marine protected areas in the UK, allowing them to better lock in carbon and provide safe habitats for local marine life.
Who lives in the seagrass meadows?
These fantastic underwater meadows are home to the two species of seahorses that live in UK waters – the spiny seahorse and the short-snouted seahorse – they’re also breeding grounds for cuttlefish and sharks, and nurseries for cod, plaice and pollock.
Learn more about seagrass
How can you get involved?
There are so many ways that you can get involved with the Marine Conservation Society’s fantastic work, and here are just a few of them: