Reducing and Mitigating Erosion and Disturbance Impacts affecting the Seabed (ReMEDIES) was a 5-year (2019 to 2024), European Union LIFE funded project worth £2.5 million. It was a partnership between Natural England, Ocean Conservation Trust, Marine Conservation Society, Plymouth City Council/Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and the Royal Yachting Association.
The project worked in 5 Special Areas of Conservation, across Essex Estuaries in Eastern England, The Solent Maritime in southern England, Plymouth Sound and Estuaries, and Fal and Helford and the Isles of Scilly Complex, in the south-west. The project was needed because large areas of the seabed found in the project’s sites are in ‘unfavourable’ condition.
This includes sensitive seabed habitats of seagrass and maerl. ReMEDIES aimed to both raise awareness of seagrass & maerl beds through a variety of community engagement activities, promote more sustainable mooring practices by using a combination of Advanced Mooring Systems (AMS)s and Voluntary No Anchor Zones (VNAZs) and actively restore seagrass using three innovative restoration techniques.
The project trialled a variety of innovative techniques, consisting of un-germinated seed deployments (Seed Broadcasting), injection of seed into the seabed (Hydro Marine Seeding) and trans-locating established plants deployments (Seagrass Mat Technology). Early signs indicate Hydro Marine Seeding and Seagrass Mat Technology show most promise when combined.
The project also installed 3 VNAZs and 41 Advanced Mooring Systems and swim markers to protect existing areas of sea grass and assessed the extent of changing behaviours from ReMEDIES interventions.
All this work was reported on with outputs here, or on our website Save Our Seabed.
This web page is in the process of being developed and will contain all the rest of the resources from the ReMEDIES project very soon.