The Marsh Volunteer Awards, hosted by The Wildlife Trusts and Marsh Charitable Trust, honour exceptional volunteers and staff in conservation. Recognising contributions to social, cultural, and environmental causes.

This win, the first for an entire group, highlights their incredible efforts in restoring and protecting the Solent's marine habitats. The team's dedication to planting seagrass beds, educating the public, and conducting vital research has significantly impacted local marine biodiversity.

Our volunteers have made remarkable contributions to marine conservation including: 

Solent Seagrass Champions

Our 270 Solent Seagrass Champions are actively involved in all aspects of our Solent Seagrass Project Restoration Project efforts, with the generous support of FatFace Foundation. From monitoring and surveying existing seagrass meadows, to harvesting seagrass seed as well as sorting the seed in the lab and then planting it back out in some of our local marine environments. Their incredible dedication is evident as they often meet us on the shore as early as 5 am!

The aim is to restore seagrass habitats in the Solent, which will support increased biodiversity, promote greater ecosystem services, cleaner water, and create a natural carbon solution to mitigate the effects of climate change. Our restoration work would not be possible without their unwavering support.

Community engagement and habitat restoration

The Trust has successfully harnessed the fascination many people have with the underwater world to recruit an army of amazing volunteers. We currently have nearly 200 Marine Champions signed up to assist with the Solent Seascape Project.

We are working alongside nine other organisations on the restoration of four key habitat types - seagrass meadows, oyster reefs, saltmarsh, and seabird nesting sites.

These volunteers give up their own time to help protect marine life.

Volunteers have donated photos and videos that help people connect with, understand, and marvel at the breathtaking beauty of our seas, to leading talks, events, and workshops.

They have also conducted intertidal surveys so we can record what local marine wildlife is home to our wonderful shores and enhanced their skills through various training courses.

Recreational activity surveys

Our volunteers have also undertaken three year's of recreational activity surveys across the Solent as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project. This valuable data has been instrumental in shaping decisions on managing recreational activities in the Solent area to protect vital seagrass meadows.

Our volunteers commitment to marine work has had resounding impacts in terms of engaging Hampshire and Isle of Wight communities. We know there will be a lasting legacy, in the number of people supporting and being involved in local marine projects.