News from the Blue

Where there’s a WILL, there’s a WILD!

Earlier this month, we celebrated five years of seabed protection with ripples of recovery pulsing across our seabed. The Sussex IFCA’s Nearshore Trawling Byelaw which granted protection of our seabed from bottom-trawling is in its fifth year, and we are seeing evidence that nature is beginning her work to recover the sea. Mussel beds - ecosystem engineers providing 3D habitats for wildlife and kelp spores to attach - are growing in area, and Black Sea Bream, fish once targeted by the trawlers and whose nests on the seabed were destroyed by the trawling gear - are on the increase!

Protection and patience are key to the seabed’s recovery. The natural recovery of our seabed will take time, but we are confident that these ripples of recovery will in the future grow into waves of success!

5 Years of Recovery for Sussex's Seabed - The Film

To celebrate the five year anniversary, our partners, Big Wave TV (with the support of Blue Marine Foundation) have created a short film to tell the story so far, and take a look to the future. Including commentary from Clare Brook (Blue Marine Foundation), Rob Pearson (Sussex IFCA), Dr Ray Ward (Queen Mary University of London), Clive Mills (Bognor Regis fisher) and Eric Smith & Catrine Priestley (Sussex Underwater) this film highlights the story of Sussex‘s seabed, and the hopes for its future.

Sussex Underwater celebrate five years of protection for life under the waves

SKRP members, Sussex Underwater have also released a short film - footage taken by their divers - to showcase the wonderful life returning beneath our waves. Images of cuttlefish, seahorse, ray, and more delight and tantalise with us with scenes of a magical future underneath the waves.

World Rewilding Day

#WorldRewildingDay fell coincidentally during our week of celebrations of our Sussex rewilding project and so we doubled up on our applause of the protection - the Sussex IFCA Nearshore Trawling Byelaw - which has given the keys to the sea back to nature, letting her take the lead in the rewilding of our seabed.

Rewilding is a long-term, large-scale process which begins with the removal of a key pressure(s) on an ecosystem, allowing nature to lead the recovery, creating a robust and more resilient environment. 

It is anticipated in our Sussex sea, we will see this rewilding process begin with the recovery of ‘ecosystem engineers’ on the seabed such as kelp, mussels and chalk reef-dwelling piddocks. 

In allowing nature to rewild our seas - and with continued patience and protection from us - we hope that the in the future the seabed will be blanketed in a mosaic of fish habitats, supporting a thriving community of marine life for generations to come.