A seagrass restoration programme on the Humber looks set to be scaled up significantly by offshore wind giant Orsted.
Launched earlier this year, with an initial 10 acre pilot and £2.5 million investment, a further 74 acres could be funded should its Hornsea Four project secure development consent. It would be the largest habitat resurgence of its type in the UK and Europe, focused on Spurn Point.
Such a lost meadow would act as a resilience measure for the final green energy scheme in the huge zone, providing potential new and improved nursery habitat for prey species that seabirds, specifically kittiwake, guillemot and razorbill, depend on.
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Dr Sarah Randall, environment manager at Orsted, said: “Hornsea Project Four will be one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, providing a significant source of low-carbon energy to UK homes and businesses. Throughout development of the offshore wind farm, we have been working alongside a range of stakeholders and the local community to ensure that the project is built sensitively and sustainably. We are delighted to be working with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on this ambitious seagrass restoration project and hope that this will provide the foundation for future success and innovation.”
If fully implemented, the programme could span the next seven years and would see specialists from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust sustainably collect seeds from areas of healthy seagrass, growing them in their seagrass nursery and replanting them in carefully selected areas.
The Humber Estuary once supported vast seagrass meadows across both banks, with records of dwarf seagrass covering over 500 hectares at Spurn Point, and vast swathes from Grimsby to Cleethorpes. Due to industrialisation of the estuary, and subsequent decline in water quality, disease and coastal squeeze, the expansive beds deteriorated, almost completely, between the 1930s and 1980s.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has been leading on seagrass conservation in the Humber since 2007, introducing protections for the remaining fragments of seagrass meadow, piloting and developing restoration techniques and expertise.
Dr James Wood, fisheries and research manager for the North Sea Wildlife Trusts, said: “This pioneering project is a crucial step for seagrass in the Humber Estuary, and the wider marine environment, it’s an incredibly exciting partnership and could be the largest seagrass restoration project in the UK and Europe. Over time, we expect to see huge improvements to water quality, marine habitats, and related species within one of the most important conservation sites in the UK. Following a series of successful restoration trials, the time has come for bigger, bolder action on seagrass restoration.”
The Humber Seagrass Restoration project provides the foundation for Orsted’s flagship Seascape Restoration Programme, which in collaboration with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is working on a wider programme to restore nature around the Humber Estuary, including native oysters, saltmarsh and seagrass.
Orsted has set an industry-leading ambition that all new renewable energy projects it commissions from 2030, at the latest, should deliver a net-positive biodiversity impact. It has also teamed up with the WWF with a focus on harmonyising climate action with ocean biodiversity.
Benj Sykes, Orsted's head of UK environment, consents and external affairs, added: “Climate change is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity globally, which is why the rapid shift away from fossil fuels to clean energy is so crucial. Offshore wind has a vital role to play in the global transition to green energy – but that must not come at the expense of marine biodiversity. We need to make sure offshore wind is part of the solution, not part of the problem, which is why we’re already actively working to test solutions to deliver on our net-positive ambition.”
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