Blue Meridian Ocean Trust

Field reports from the Mediterranean

One report for each programme: what the work looks like on the water, what it is up against, and what it has added up to so far.

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Field report · Seagrass restoration

Seagrass restoration field report

A seagrass meadow torn out by an anchor or a trawl leaves a bare scar of sand. Without the roots to hold it, the floor shifts with every swell, and the young fish that sheltered in the blades have nowhere to go.

Our teams replant those scars by hand, shoot by shoot, working square metre by square metre across the gap. It is slow work, and it is the only way to put a meadow back where one has been lost.

What it has added up to

Across the programme, 640 hectares of Mediterranean sea floor have been replanted. In the Trust's own costing, every 25 EUR given replants 12 square metres of it.

How seagrass restoration works

Field report · Ghost-net removal

Ghost-net removal field report

Nobody sets out to lose a net. But once a net breaks loose or is abandoned, it keeps doing what it was made for. It catches fish, turtles and seabirds that no one will ever land, and it settles over the sea floor and smothers what grows there.

The work is to find these nets, cut them free from rock and sand without tearing up what lives beneath, and lift them out of the water for good. Every net brought ashore is weighed, and the weight goes into the running total.

What it has added up to

212 tonnes of ghost nets have been removed from the Mediterranean so far — 212 tonnes of gear that has stopped fishing for no one.

How ghost-net removal works

Field report · Community fishing agreements

Community fishing agreement field report

Replanting a meadow or clearing a reef of nets only lasts if the pressure that damaged it eases. That is not something an office can decide for a coast. It has to be agreed by the people whose living depends on the same water.

So this programme starts at the table, not on the boat. We sit down with fishing communities and help them write their own agreements on where, when and how to fish — rules they have made, and so rules they keep.

Why it matters to the other two programmes

An agreement is what lets restored meadows and recovering stocks hold, season after season. It is the part of the work that protects the 640 hectares already replanted and the water already cleared of 212 tonnes of nets.

How fishing agreements work

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Material still to come from the Trust

Each field report is designed to carry a named case study: the place, the people involved, the dates and the measured result at that site. The brief did not include any named case studies, so the three reports describe each programme with the Trust's published totals only. Inventing names, places or quotes would break the promise of honest figures.

Once the Trust supplies one case study per programme — site, people who agreed to be named, dates and result — each report's “Where” and “Result so far” lines and its body text take them in directly.