2015 - 2017 Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) South Coast Cornwall, Devon and Dorset Seagrass Transect Survey

The Community Seagrass Initiative is a citizen science lead monitoring programme. It focusses on sub-tidal seagrass beds in the South West of England between Looe in Cornwall and Weymouth in Dorset. There are 19 beds surveyed by the project in total, some, but not all, fall within the boundaries of designated Marine Protected Areas (MPA's). Data on seagrass shoot density, fauna counts on a very broad scale, and presence/absence of some Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and commercial fisheries species. Data is collected by volunteer divers that don't necessarily have previous marine biological surveying experience. They have been trained by the project on the surveying and animal identification skills required.