The rewilding project off the West Sussex coast is celebrating its fourth anniversary.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19354588

A marine rewilding initiative to restore an underwater kelp forest in West Sussex is celebrating “remarkable” results, a wildlife trust has said.

The project was launched after the implementation of a new bylaw prohibiting trawling in a 117 sq mile (302 sq km) coastal area between Shoreham-by-Sea and Selsey in March 2021.

Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Sussex Kelp Recovery Project (SKRP) researchers have reported positive signs of recovery, including an increase in the populations of lobster, brown crab, angelshark and short-snouted seahorse.

  • RedSnt 👓♂️🖥️
    8·
    5 days ago

    Kelp forests once covered vast areas of coastline in the county. But 96% had been wiped out by 2019, largely due to the great storm of 1987 and fishing practices known as bottom-trawling.

    The way they phrased that, first of all, makes it sound like bottom-trawling isn’t well known which I find preposterous, but ok. Secondly it also sounds like “oh, we can’t be sure, might be 50/50 if it was some storm in 1987 or the constant trawling for decades thereafter, who knows!”. Right.

    In any case, I’m happy to hear this project is turning out so well.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      5 days ago

      I am overweight largely due to the time I overate at Olive Garden in 2006, my worryingly sedentary lifestyle, propensity to eat impulsively to fill a void, love of trash food, and lack of a schedule for meals.