A project to restore environmentally important seagrass beds in the Solent could be sped up by innovative technology.  

A unique seagrass seed sorting machine has been developed for Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust by a team of engineering students at the University of Delft in the Netherlands. 

The novel, prototype device is designed to help speed up the Trust’s efforts to plant thousands of seagrass seeds across various locations along the Solent’s coastline. 

Seagrass meadows are powerhouses of blue carbon storage, helping to battle the effects of climate change, as well as combatting coastal erosion and boosting marine biodiversity by providing habitat, food, breeding grounds and shelter for many species. 

The Trust, working in partnership with Boskalis Westminster and the University of Portsmouth, is aiming to increase the capacity of reseeding seagrass meadows in the Solent by 300% within two years, and asked the Dutch university team to review the current methods and tools for ways to speed up the process. 

Knowing the manual filtration of viable seagrass seeds from plant material was incredibly time-consuming, the team of engineering master’s students designed and built a prototype vortex filtration system to quickly, easily and cleanly separate seagrass seeds from plant material and dirt.  

Student Esmee Menting said: “We created a number of conceptual designs to replace the current filtration and deployment systems, including a funnel system and vortex mixer.  

“We built prototypes of the vortex filtration system and early tests showed incredibly promising results.  

“An initial estimation indicates this could save over 200 hours on the current scale, which can be allocated to other crucial steps in the process.” 

Dr Tim Ferrero, the Trust’s senior marine biologist and lead on the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project, said: “We are very excited to be working with the University of Delft’s master’s students on this innovative machine to help us restore seagrass in the Solent. 

“As far as we know, a machine like this has never been used before with seagrass seeds, and from testing in the early trial stages it certainly holds a lot of promise. 

“By regenerating seagrass habitats, we can create a Wilder Solent, supporting increased biodiversity and sustainable fisheries, promoting greater ecosystem services, cleaner water and creating a natural blue carbon solution to mitigate the effects of climate change.” 

In October 2019, the Trust launched its Wilder 2030 strategy, which calls for a wilder future and for at least 30% of land and sea to be restored for nature’s recovery by 2030.  

The Solent Seagrass Restoration Project is a vital piece of the puzzle in working towards the Trust’s vision to restore seagrass habitats in the Solent to their historical levels.  

As well as Boskalis Westminster and the University of Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight Distillery, Wightlink and FatFace Foundation are other supporters of the Trust’s project to restore seagrass in the Solent.

Find out more about the project by visiting hiwwt.org.uk/seagrass-restoration