A grant from the Blue Carbon Trust to the marine habitat restoration charity Seawilding for £20,000 starts a new and exciting chapter to restore the ocean’s only flowering plant around the west coast of Scotland.
Since 2021, the charity, Seawilding, has been researching ways of enhancing seagrass meadows at Loch Craignish, Argyll and in 2025, announced a major breakthrough, having successfully planted 1/3 hectare using seagrass shoot transplants. 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.
This new grant from the Blue Carbon Trust will enable the charity to take this successful methodology to other sites on the west coast of Scotland.
“The success of seagrass restoration is site specific, and we’re keen to better understand whether we can make this methodology work elsewhere”, said Danny Renton, Founder and CEO of Seawilding. “This fantastic grant from the Blue Carbon Trust will help us identify suitable sites, conduct trials, and work with local communities to survey and monitor success. It’s an exciting time!”
“We are delighted to support Seawilding’s pioneering work in restoring seagrass meadows along Scotland’s west coast. Protecting and regenerating these critical habitats is essential not only for marine biodiversity but also for tackling climate change through nature-based solutions” added Pete Raines MBE, CEO of the Blue Carbon Trust. “This grant will help scale up proven restoration techniques and engage local communities in safeguarding our ocean’s health for future generations.”
Seagrass is the ocean’s only flowering plant and provides a vital habitat for marine biodiversity as well as being an important carbon sink, yet it has been disappearing at an alarming rate since the 1900s. Seawilding is the UK’s first community-led marine habitat restoration project restoring seagrass and native oysters to Loch Craignish and Loch Broom and now to other areas on the west coast.