Cornwall Wildlife Trust discovers hundreds of seagrass shoots in Fowey Estuary

Cornwall Wildlife Trust discovered more than 430 seagrass shoots across 50 patches of seabed in the Fowey Estuary in Cornwall, England.

The discovery follows a period of uncertainty when only six seedlings had emerged by the end of April. Volunteers collected the seeds from a donor meadow in Torpoint during the autumn of 2022 before planting them in the estuary. The grass remained buried through the winter before beginning to grow in the spring.

This growth provides a potential path for restoring a marine habitat that mainland Britain has lost up to 92% of over the last century. Seagrass acts as a nursery for fish and improves water quality while capturing carbon at rates up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. The trust plans to plant more seeds in the Fowey Estuary and Helford Estuary, with the next monitoring phase scheduled for spring 2027.