Abstract
This report goes into detail on possible approaches for community engagement and developments to the current seagrass management in Tor Bay. This report looks into possible research that could be undertaken to monitor the seagrass conservation. The research would be at different intervals of progression to rate the success of community engagement and behaviour around private boats anchoring in seagrass areas. The importance of community engagement will determine the success of seagrass conservation as future conservation schemes will need the backing of local communities.
Tor Bay
The Wild Planet Trust is involved in seagrass management in Tor Bay and the gray patches on the map indicate seagrass meadows in the area. Seagrass is a vulnerable habitat and classed as endangered, which means it must be conserved locally. To protect seagrass from human activity there are Voluntary No Anchor Zones in seagrass areas that suggest boats do not use anchors in these sensitive areas. There are marker buoys to show where seagrass meadows are located. The area is also an inshore Marine Conservation Zone which protects the vulnerable seagrass habitat.
Community Engagement
Community engagement is critical for the success of seagrass management. Arguably there are alternative methods, but they are unlikely to amount to the same success and would be harder to enforce. An example of this is advocating for a Highly Protected Marine Area status for Tor Bays seagrass. This status would enforce the strictest form of environmental protection for the area and outright banning damaging activity, like recreational boating using anchors in the area. Achieving a Highly Protected Marine Area would not receive a positive community response due to the restriction put in place for social and economic activity in the area. However, this does not mean communities are against environmental protection if all factors are considered when implementing an environmental protection measure, this ensures limited impact on social activity for a healthier and more sustainable balance. Even introducing money incentives, like anchor fines, could be damaging to seagrass conservation as behaviour is unlikely to change, because if you take that incentive away people will stop acting. Therefore, this may benefit Tor Bay but hinder another area where money incentives cannot be maintained. It also means that more money would need to be invested in policing and managing the area which could also hinder future funding for conservation initiatives. A community approach would lead to a behavioural change in damaging human activity as people learn how to act more sustainably. Strict rules would limit the community’s enjoyment of the area which is not the aim of conservation efforts. Therefore, the question remains how to do we create this beahvioural change in sufficient time for seagrass to thrive and not be damaged?
Seagrass
The importance of conserving seagrass is a lot more integral than people think. Seagrass acts as a nursery for fish and endangered species, like the short-snouted seahorse. The benefit this habitat has for endangered species and fish is also an advantage to people dependent on commercial fishing, therefore, protecting seagrass can have economic benefits. Seagrass benefits the local area as it acts as a filter keeping the ocean healthy, while its roots keep the sand locked up preventing further beach erosion and protection from storms. It is beneficial to divers as it keeps the seabed’s beautiful and interesting. Seagrass does not just benefit local areas but can impact global issues like climate change. Seagrass photosynthesis which means it uses carbon dioxide by taking it from the atmosphere and emits oxygen. The plant is also an effective carbon sink as it not only uses carbon dioxide, but it also traps it underground preventing it from being released again. This is very prevalent after the recent COP26 and the worries that global temperatures will rise past 1.5C, an effective carbon sink is vital in the battle against climate change.
Timeline
This timeline shows the progression of management in Tor Bay as it became a Marine Conservation Zone in 2013 under the Marine and Coastal Act (2009). A Marine Conservation Zone incorporates economic, social, and environmental factors while maintaining conservation. It is also important to point out that during the Marine and Coastal Bill process there was a lot of advocacy for social activities to be considered in its making, further emphasizing why a complete ban on activities cannot occur. Wild Planet Trust began monitoring the seagrass in 2017, with diver surveys carried out in 2019 and 2020, which highlighted the beneficial impact the pandemic had on the seagrass as it had less traffic and disturbance. The aim is to maintain this level of peace for seagrass to thrive without limiting social enjoyment. March 1st was world seagrass day and provides hope for the future that with community driven innovation will allow greater protection for seagrass in Tor Bay.
Seagrass Under Threat
Seagrass is at risk from numerous threats, mainly from human activity. Seagrass can become polluted from waste and rubbish which threatens the fish and animals that live there. Seagrass photosynthesis’ which means it requires light, therefore, any algae or waste that blocks the light will prevent this. That is why it is important to keep a clean coast and ocean so that local habitats and wildlife can thrive. The threat this report is focused on is the anchoring of private boats in seagrass areas of Tor Bay. The issue with anchors is that it destroys the plant from its roots, the anchor rips out the rhizomes of the plant which destroys the habitat. The issue is that we need anchors to stop being used in seagrass areas while allowing recreational boating to still occur. The conservation schemes already in place in Torbay depend on community cooperation and acceptance in order to work. There is a Voluntary No Anchor Zone in seagrass areas but without knowledge or promotion people could be unaware of the threat and damage they are posing to the seagrass meadows and the knock-on effect this can have. The aim is to protect seagrass while still enjoying the social and economic benefits of Torbay.
Promoting Sustainable Behaviours Through Solution-Based Approaches
Issues like environmental degradation and climate change can be daunting and overwhelming for people, especially if they feel helpless to the problem. Therefore, focusing on the problem can cause people to shut themselves off to it, which causes more problems in the future. Recognizing and highlighting a problem is easier when solutions are provided alongside them. Providing a solution and positivity ensures that you are greeted with open-mindedness and acceptance. The solution must be reasonable, for example, once the issue of plastic polluting the ocean was highlighted, people made sensible changes, like reusable water bottles and shopping bags. Setting achievable changes for people can have a positive impact on further conservation efforts. Empowering local communities with the knowledge and tools to help their local environments will prove necessary in further conservation efforts. Promoting sustainable beahviours is the only way forward for conservation efforts to coincide with social and economic enjoyment of Torbay. At the moment the balance between human activity and environmental protection is uneven, which is why seagrass meadows are deteriorating at an excessive rate. The balance will ensure that people are acting sustainably, and this accounts for boating activity.
Eco-mooring
Communities have proved consistently that they are willing to adapt if provided with a solution and alternatives to current actions. The pandemic proved that people could adapt to protect themselves and others, so this concept can be used to protect the environment. The picture to the left is of a coast in Florida and illustrates the damage that can be caused to seagrass meadows due to boat and anchor usage. The damage and scars left on that coast is something we want to avoid happening in Torbay, which is why advocating for behavioural changes when anchoring in seagrass is so prevalent. To achieve this there has to be an alternative to anchoring in seagrass and that is eco-mooring which has proved successful in other areas of the UK and round the world. Eco-mooring was developed to limit the distress to the seabed allowing the seagrass and boating activity to co-exist. Traditional mooring is damaging to the seagrass as the chain drags along the seabed disturbing the habitat. Eco-mooring, like the Stirling Advanced Mooring System, prevents the chain from disturbing the seabed by using floats to lift the chain, while other models use bungee leads to keep away from the seabed. This allows the seagrass to vitalize the surrounding seabed and grow right up to the mooring station.
Promoting Awareness Through Efficient Communication and Education
Educating the public on the importance of seagrass and its benefits to the local community is essential. Once people understand the necessity of seagrass, they will become more invested in its protection and hence increase community engagement. Sufficient signs and advertising in seagrass locations are essential in promoting local knowledge. Studland Bay raised awareness of seagrass and introduced eco-mooring to the area and one of the questions raised by the community was ‘how would people know where the seagrass is located?’ Signs on site and around the seagrass will point the area out, for example, marker buoys for boats. However, if the boating community does not know about the signs, they will not know to look out for them. The Marine Monitoring Organization notified organisations to update their charts and educational material on Voluntary No Anchor Zones for Studland Bay, which means that we can contact boating communities directly to notify them of the importance of sticking to restricted speed and not anchoring near seagrass. An example would be the Royal Torbay Yacht Club that have members of the boating community who could be contacted and informed through the club. A lot of clubs offer their own training which could be adapted to include the importance of preserving seagrass and how to use alternatives to anchoring. This would ensure people were more confident in using eco-mooring and ensure that the scheme will thrive along with seagrass conservation. Social media can connect the local community with the reasoning behind initiatives and promote support for the seagrass conservation. It is important that the local community is behind the work done to ensure that there is a beahvioural shift towards sustainability. This means that we must ensure all advice is coherent otherwise there could be miscommunications that could undermine the conservation efforts. Some examples of educational promotions include Plymouth Aquarium that are growing seagrass for people to see first-hand the positives of conserving the habitat. This could be utilized by having it on show around the harbours so that people can be reminded that there is important habitat under the sea.
Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable tourism is becoming more prevalent around the world and could be utilized here, especially due to the pandemic which caused a lot of people to holiday around the country instead of going abroad. Promoting sustainable tourism can benefit local businesses and people by keeping the local area safe while gaining economically. It also means that stakeholders become more invested in conservation efforts like seagrass management and more likely to receive funding. Sustainable tourism would also correspond with the aim of changing behaviours to become more sustainable and promote the use of eco-mooring. Sustainable tourism is already occurring in Devon, for example, you can rent a wooden bodyboard instead of buying one made of polystyrene that will end up in landfill, polluting the ocean or beaches. Plastic free shops and refill stations are battling against waste and plastic pollution, which are all sustainable tourism ventures that in some way aid the conservation of seagrass. Australia promotes safari swims in seagrass as a diving experience for holiday makers which talk about the importance of seagrass while profiting and benefiting local people. Studland Bay acts as another example because involving local stakeholders is important, as one of the eco-mooring stations was funded by a local restaurant, and another from an individual in memory of a family member.
Possible Research and Monitoring
The seagrass has to be monitored through repeated observations to detect any changes, along with research carried out of the behavioural changes and opinion shifts from the different community groups. The hypothesis is that with the health of the seagrass increasing, the awareness and behavioural change of community groups will shift away from unsustainable activities, like anchoring towards eco-mooring. Any research will have to be clear, highly detailed, safely conducted, and transparent, to allow other research to be elaborative. Transparency also promotes a trusting relationship between conservationists and local people, this is likely to aid future conservation efforts and research, for example, unlicensed activity will be easier to research and halt if the community are supporting you. To ensure that monitoring of the seabed is conducted safely we would have to use equipment and methods that limit disturbance to the seagrass. The image is of a flying camera developed by Dr Sheehan at Plymouth University that is used for habitat mapping and flies over the seagrass and take detailed pictures without the need of it to come in contact with the seafloor. This would ensure we get detailed records so that we can go back and look at pictures along with out notes and know that the seabed was not disturbed in the process. Going forward it would be good to train volunteers and divers to undertake their own monitoring even if we cannot be with them. We can provide online guides for example, how to make at home quadrats with size guides and step by step instructions. That means not only would we get data from our investigations but also when volunteer divers go out without us. There could also be an online spreadsheet that the divers can input their own data so that there is more data of the progress and health of the seagrass for further research.
The research I would like to undertake would be through a phased approach monitoring the change of behaviours before, during and after the introduction of educational material like signs, social media influence and promotions along with the introduction of eco-mooring. The hope is that there will be a shift from recreational boating anchoring to using the eco-mooring stations. To measure this change we will need to gather what people currently know about the current conservation measures like the Voluntary No Anchor Zones and boating communities’ responses to them. We also want to record people’s level of awareness of seagrass and its importance and build a socio-demographic of the area and its uses. This will be done through gathering quantitative and qualitative research through surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. Ensuring that questionaries are available online will expand the number of subjects and allow us to contact the boating community directly.
Similar investigation will be undertaken during the introduction of educational material and eco-mooring stations to get peoples responses to the measures. This investigation will be collaborative with another seagrass monitoring to ensure that the data can be compared later on. We will be looking for any change in opinion towards local conservation and any increase in awareness so far. The use of eco-mooring will be monitored rating people’s confidence with using the mooring station. GIS mapping can be used to monitor any change in boating activities, whether that is boats moving away from seagrass areas or a shift by recreational boaters away from anchoring boats in vulnerable areas. It is also important to investigate whether the messages have accurately reached their target audience, for example, if 5 out of 6 boaters have not heard of eco-mooring or seagrass then the community engagement promotions have failed. This will also point out if there have been any miscommunications that we can ratify and prevent in future engagement ideas.
The final stage will be to measure the behavioural changes away from anchoring of private boats and the increased use of eco-mooring. This will corelate with an increase of community awareness of seagrass along with the improved health and management of the seagrass. The behavioural research will correspond with seagrass monitoring at the same time which should show the seagrass health improving along with the decrease in anchoring boats. This could be with increased seagrass percentage, increased species numbers and an increase in seagrass boundaries. This phase will rate the success of the educational advertising and the use of eco-moorings. People can elaborate on their experience through open-ended questions and allow us to make positive changes to encourage more from the boating community to use eco-mooring and understand the damage cause from anchors. It should also identify why people cared about seagrass conservation, whether that was the endangered species, like the seahorse, or for the science around it. This will help future schemes so that we know what to promote to which community group.
Mock Questionnaires and Survey Ideas
The idea is to establish research alongside the monitoring of the seagrass so each study can correlate with the current health of the seagrass. This includes monitoring the use of eco-mooring and anchors in the seagrass areas. Precautions will have to be taken before the questionnaires and interviews, for people to sign that they are happy with details being taken and to carry out the questionnaire. These are mock ideas that can be developed after sample data is collected.
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