10/23/2026
Happy Fieldwork Friday friends! Today we are featuring a dedicated network of global scientists and communities working to protect and restore one of the unsung heroes of the sea - seagrass.
Seagrasses are underwater flowering plants that span vast meadows in shallow coastal areas. Besides providing nurseries, shelter, and food to MANY commercially, recreationally, and ecologically important critters, seagrasses provide coastal communities with MANY ecosystem services like water quality, carbon sequestration, and oxygen production.
But living in coastal areas means seagrass meadows are especially vulnerable to humans impacts. It’s estimated we’ve lost 20% of the world’s seagrass meadows. So protecting what’s left and trying to restore what we’ve lost is critical. Luckily we have amazing orgs like seagrassnet who have taken on the challenge!
SeagrassNet is an expanding, worldwide ecological monitoring program that investigates and documents the status of seagrass resources and the threats to this important and imperiled marine ecosystem. They do this by working with small local communities, volunteers, researches, academics and governments. And this year is our 25th anniversary!!
Check out these great pics of their team in action in action in Alaska, California, Massachusetts, US Virgin Islands, Belize, and Italy!
