Why should we care about them?

Over a billion people live within 50 kilometres from a seagrass meadow, yet we know little about them. Seagrasses offer a number of ecosystem services. They provide a nursery for juvenile fish and a habitat to lobster, crab, seahorses and others. Seagrasses are the primary food source for the world’s largest marine herbivores and iconic species like manatees and dugongs. They clean the water by filtering pollutants. They protect the coast by trapping and stabilizing marine sediments, thus raising the seafloor.

The potential of seagrass meadows and the other vegetated coastal ecosystems like mangroves and saltmarshes to make an important contribution to global carbon sequestration and storage has become apparent. Seagrass meadows are now known to store carbon at a rate that is 35 times faster than boreal or tropical terrestrial forests. Thus they are very important as the world searches for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.