The Speak Up For Blue Podcast

Coastal Habitats play a very important role in the health of the Ocean and the security of the coastline. Seagrass meadows are one of the critical habitats that are often forgotten because they may not have the "sexiness" that other habitats such as coral reefs have; however, they provide a nursery habitat for thousands of species, filter out nutrients and heavy metals from the water, and act as a carbon sink. There is one more benefit that certain Seagrass species provide the Ocean and that is filtering out large amounts of microplastics. The Seagrass species, Posidonia oceanica, produce fibrous material known as Neptune balls that trap 1,500 plastic particles per kilogram of seagrass each year. The Neptune balls often wash ashore where they can be picked up and discarded.  Researchers don't know the effects of plastics on the seagrass species as trapping plastic is a fairly new discovery and more research will be required. P. oceanica is not the only seagrass species to have this ability to trap plastic pie