Seagrass restoration works best when the people who live alongside the meadows are part of it. With that in mind, REBORN partner the Parc naturel marin du Bassin d'Arcachon (PNMBA) is focusing on the community-led side of seagrass restoration. As mentioned in our August blog, involving local people in restoration and monitoring to support coastal seascape management is a priority for the PNMBA. This first summer, we piloted a range of public engagement activities around the Bassin d’Arcachon as we worked towards a more equitable, inclusive and diverse restoration programme. Here’s what PNMBA has been up to:
Transplanting Zostera noltii with Wings Of The Ocean
In June, we kicked off our first dedicated REBORN ‘seagrass transplantation chantier participatif’ with the Wings of the Ocean, an association that works to protect the ocean by fighting against litter, especially plastics. On Wednesday 17 June, Wings of the Ocean joined PNMBA staff on the mudflats of Audenge, where they translocated 300 Zostera noltii cores.
Photo: Stéphanie Bouillaguet
Fragment Walks at the Bassin d’Arcachon Pilot Site
In early August, as tourism returned to the Bassin d’Arcachon following the fires, we started piloting ‘Fragment Walks’ to test whether the Project Seagrass Fragment Walks, a success story from the Solent Seascape Project in England, can work just as well here in the Bassin. The idea is to collect fragments of Zostera marina that wash up on the beaches and take them to our local partner, the Lycée de la Mer in Gujan-Mestras, where they can recover and grow in a nursery environment. Once healthy, these plants can be used in future restoration work. Our partnership with the school will create a seagrass nursery on-site and raise awareness of the importance of seagrass ecosystems among future marine professionals. So far, we’ve walked the beaches of Arcachon, La Hume and La Teste-de-Buch to learn when and where the fragments are most likely to wash up.
Annual general meeting (AGM) at Les Amis du littoral nord bassin d'Arcachon
On Saturday 8 August, Florine Verhaeghe from the French Biodiversity Office and RJ Lilley from lead partner Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, REBORN’s lead partner, attended the AGM of local association Les Amis du littoral nord bassin d'Arcachon. They presented the results of the PNMBA’s existing seagrass restoration programme, running since 2021, and introduced Interreg NWE REBORN. It was the perfect setting to explore how, between now and 2029, the project can offer more volunteering opportunities in seagrass restoration, and a wider variety of them.
North Basin Open Days
Following the AGM, the PNMBA ran two open days (Journées Nord Bassin) near Arès, in the north of the Bassin, giving prospective volunteers the chance to watch and take part in restoration work. The first, on 18 August, focused on seagrass translocation: using 10 cm PVC pipes to collect seagrass cores for transplanting elsewhere. The second, on 2 September, focused on seed picking.
Seed-picking and translocation Zostera noltii with Patagonia and The Ocean Gardeners
On Sunday 27 September, we welcomed 4 volunteers from Patagonia EMEA and The Ocean Gardeners, along with Dr Inés Mazarrasa, a blue carbon expert from IHCantabria, in Santander Spain. They came to learn about our marine restoration programmes and to take part in seed-picking and translocation.
The day was a great success: we gathered several hundred seeds and 300 sods for translocation, and finished with a guided tour of the Île aux Oiseaux seagrass and saltmarsh complex, which shows how closely connected the habitats across the Bassin are.
REBORN Partner Meeting
Finally, from 12 to 15 October, the PNMBA hosted REBORN’s second partner meeting, the first since the project kick-off in Schiermonnikoog, the Netherlands in February. We welcomed 26 colleagues from across North-West Europe: France, Ireland, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark.
On 13 October, we gathered at the Lycée de la Mer to continue co-developing the REBORN restoration model. The next day, Dr Philine zu Ermgassen led a SER Europe training session on the new marine version of the Ecological Recovery Wheel, followed by an insightful presentation from Dr Guillaume Bernard of Ifremer’s Arcachon station. In the afternoon, we put on our mud shoes and headed out to Garrèche to translocate 300 seagrass sods, before enjoying a short boat trip to see the Bassin’s most emblematic sites.
It’s been a fantastic start to REBORN, and we look forward to watching this partnership grow.
Blog by: Dr Thomas Fauvel and Florine Verhaeghe, French Biodiversity Office, Parc naturel marin du Bassin d'Arcachon.