Almost a million seagrass seeds planted off coast of west Wales to tackle climate change

Hundreds of thousands of seagrass seeds have been planted off the Pembrokeshire coast as part of the UK's biggest ever seagrass restoration scheme.

The project aims to help tackle climate change as seagrass captures carbon dioxide up to thirty-five times quicker than tropical rainforests.

Sky Ocean Rescue, WWF and Swansea University worked together to help plant the 750,000 seeds in Dale Bay, Pembrokeshire.

More seeds will be planted later this year as part of the scheme.

Seagrass is a flowering marine plant that grows in large underwater meadows. It absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen, helping battle climate change. It also absorbs nitrogen from the ocean.

Not only does it help with climate change, once fully grown the plant can also support 160,000 fish. This helps provide a crucial habitat for many of the fish we eat, such as cod, plaice and pollock.

More seeds are due to be planted this year, bringing the total number to more than a million. The project aims to help replenish seagrass levels which have depleted by 92% in the last century.

The huge decline has been caused by pollution, coastal development and damage from boat propellers and equipment.

The seeds were cultivated at Swansea University and around 2,000 volunteers in west Wales helped by preparing small hessian bags to plant them in.

These bags were secured to the sea floor and will safely disintegrate over time, leaving the plants to take root.

The site in Dale Bay was chosen because, although the area has lost seagrass, it has the right water depth and light levels for the plant to survive in.