Robots are helping restore lost seagrass meadows

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🗞️ Driving the news: ReefGen’s Grasshopper robot is revolutionizing seagrass restoration by planting seeds quickly and efficiently underwater
• Seagrass meadows, vital for carbon storage and marine ecosystems, are declining by 7% annually due to climate change and human activity
• Grasshopper, currently piloted manually, can plant up to 60 seeds per minute and holds 20,000 seeds

🔭 The context: Seagrass meadows once covered 18 million hectares globally but have seen a 30-40% decline
• Traditional restoration methods rely on divers, but robots like Grasshopper speed up the process, reducing risks and increasing scalability
• ReefGen’s early trials in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia show comparable results to manual planting

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Seagrass meadows are crucial for mitigating coastal erosion, preserving fish habitats, and storing oceanic carbon
• Scaling up restoration efforts with robots could counteract habitat loss and improve marine biodiversity

⏭️ What's next: Grasshopper’s semi-autonomous features, like navigation, are in development to increase efficiency
• Comparative studies with the University of North Carolina aim to refine robotic planting techniques and improve restoration outcomes
• Long-term monitoring and local community involvement will be vital to sustaining these efforts

💬 One quote: “Without the seagrass meadows, we’re going to see more coastal erosion, the loss of coral reefs, the loss of fish stocks, and degraded water quality,” - Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen

📈 One stat: Grasshopper planted 25,000 seeds in Wales in a single deployment, demonstrating its potential to scale restoration

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