Bahama Banks Seagrass Conservation: Mapping and Protecting the World’s Largest Seagrass Meadow

This virtual poster presentation is to present the The Bahama Banks Blue Carbon project, a first-of-its-kind seagrass conservation project, innovating with methodology and technology to map and protect the world's largest seagrass meadow.

Blue Carbon International (BCI) is an independent extension of the internationally renowned ocean conservation not-for-profit Beneath The Waves. BCI empowers Governments, indigenous landowners and the private sector to map, value, finance and protect ocean ecosystems at scale.

The Bahama Banks Blue Carbon project is a seagrass conservation project undertaken by the government of The Bahamas in partnership with BCI. The Bahamas is home to the world's largest seagrass ecosystem (estimated to be 9.3 million hectares), but our mapping reveals that as much as 30% of the ecosystem was lost between 2010 and 2020. 

This project is the first-of-its-kind, deploying methodologies and technologies at a scale not seen before in seagrass conservation.

Firstly, representing one of the largest ocean discoveries of the decade, BCI’s founding partner Beneath The Waves discovered the seagrass meadow while studying tiger shark movements, with sharks tagged with satellite tags and custom-built cameras.

Secondly, innovating with scalable methodology and technology, an initial subsample of 500,000 hectares has already been mapped to 5cm accuracy using satellite imagery and aerial Lidar, following Verra-developed and approved methodology (VM0007/VM0033).

Regarding conservation project activities, environmental impact assessments have been completed, recommending a primary focus on seagrass health and extent. Proposed project activities aim to improve water clarity and reduce nutrient loading to coastal waters, which induces favorable conditions for seagrass. Because of strong evidence of land-based pollution degrading coastal waters, the majority of proposed project activities to improve water quality will likely focus near the shore. Some of the project activities include: tertiary treatment to remove nutrients in wastewater; remediating former aqua/agriculture and/or landfills in coastal lowlands; tightening regulations for sediment from dredging/construction activities; and restoring mangroves for coastal and erosion control.