Seagrass seeds grown on Teesside

Tees Rivers Trust are helping to bring back seagrass to the Tees

Stronger Shores funding will provide support for the expansion of the brilliant works already established through funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund and PD Ports. The team are learning the best way to grow seagrass from seeds in a nursery based at Hartlepool.

After months of preparation, in August, the first nursery grown seagrass plants have started to produce seed of their own, allowing the team to start collecting spathes (seed pods), These are ‘rotted out’ (the stems rot, leaving the seeds intact) ready for germinating new plants. This is incredibly exciting and the start of the journey to restoring seagrass at the Tees using locally grown seagrass seeds for the first time in decades!

Seagrass has an important part to play in making our coast stronger in the face of flooding, climate change and rising sea levels. Through Stronger Shores we are working with Tees Rivers Trust to learn as much as we can about restoring these precious habitats.