Studland Bay Marine Partnership

To manage Studland Bay in a collaborative and sustainable way, ensuring the Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) objectives are met, nature can flourish and people can enjoy the area without seriously impacting the environment. Ensuring recreational water users are a central part of this environmental initiative to restore seagrass meadows.

Project updates

Neptune and the Seagrass, Middle Beach, 7th July, Studland 10am-4pm

New seagrass shoots appearing at Studland Bay

Click to view video of University of Southampton research and monitoring divers observing seagrass regrowth in the voluntary no anchor zone.

Project overview

Recreational boaters who use, visit, and enjoy Studland Bay are being asked to help protect its precious habitats for the future. As home to Dorset’s largest seagrass meadow, Studland has also become the home to one of the most extensive nature-recovery projects in the UK.

After extensive consultation with the boating community and users of the bay, a Voluntary No Anchor Zone (VNAZ) was introduced by the Marine Management Organisation in 2021 to help reduce damage caused by boats dropping and weighing anchors and extended in June 2022 (see the MMO’s Studland Bay MCZ Habitat Protection Strategy and Managing marine non-licensable activity in Studland Bay Marine Conservation Zone – GOV.UK website for more information). At all times, anchoring in emergency situations is still permitted.

Representing a wide range of organisations, the Studland Bay Marine Partnership (SBMP) formed to work towards protecting Studland’s resident, and protected, long-snouted seahorse population and other marine wildlife.

Hundreds of waterborne visitors to Studland Bay already take a proactive approach to conservation by paying to moor on the eco-moorings which are provided and managed by the partnership. The SBMP has brought together key stakeholders and introduced a mooring solution that meets the needs of recreational boaters and protects the precious seagrass habitat.

During the boating season 87 eco-moorings are available with mooring payment via the Sippi App – Less Fuss, More Flow. The eco-moorings provide a fantastic solution for boaters, removing the need to drop anchor in the fragile seagrass habitat. Each eco-mooring has a helical screw anchor which is driven into the seabed and attached to the mooring buoy via an elastic rode which stretches and contracts with the tide, avoiding scouring the seabed.

Visit the Studland Bay Marine Partnership website for more information about the project, including our FAQs, how to pay to moor, donate to the project, support us as an ambassador for nature and lots of supporting information about the Studland Bay Marine Partnership.

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