Research & Monitoring

As a partnership we are very fortunate to be working with leading experts in marine conservation, with experience across numerous fields including marine ecology, social science, oceanography, marine policy and coastal dynamics who are monitoring the seagrass and marine life beneath the waves.

To support our monitoring programme, we now have a time-lapse camera installed overlooking the Voluntary No Anchor Zone. This camera takes multiple still images a day during the season when the full set of eco-moorings are out in the bay, and remotely sends them back to our Research and Monitoring Team. The images are then processed by software at the University of Southampton which can tell us the number of boats utilising the bay and help us to understand any patterns in boat activity. Having a better record and understanding of this will help us better protect the seagrass beds in Dorset’s largest seagrass meadow.