BY ISHMAEL KINDAMA DUMBUYA
The National Implementing Team (NIT) for the Sea grass project in Sierra Leone comprising representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute of Marine Biology and Oceanography (IMBO), the Sierra Leone Navy as well as the Resilien SEA/GRID-Arendal Consultant, Professor Salomao Bandeira from Mozambique have on the 25th March 2022 discovered a new location of sea grass in the Seh Community, part of the Turtle Islands in Southern Sierra Leone.
The new sea grass location discovered by Sierra Leone is the third sea grass discovery in the country since 2019, after Bumpetoke and Mania. This is also since the West African states (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde) started documenting and monitoring sea grasses with funding by GRID-Arendal under the Resilien SEA project.
The Team took coordinates of the new site at Seh Island and proceeded with documentation of ecological monitoring parameters such as sea grass cover, shoot number, leaf height as well as sea grass area estimates. The average length of the new-found ranges from 9 – 11 cm. Similar process occurred at Bumpetoke, larger area, but with spacer continuous sea grass meadows.
Seh has thriving sea grass meadows, is a picture model for sea grass training and community engagement for Sierra Leone but this place is highly threatened due to boat and trampling activities as well as plastic pollution.
“This is an impressive discovery which sends a clear message that with more efforts and monitoring in new locations, we will discover more sea grass in
Sierra Leone” said Paul A. Lamin, Project Coordinator and Deputy Director Natural Resources Management at the Environment Protection Agency.
“This new discovery by Sierra Leone will better place the country in the right position in the world map of sea grass” said Salomao Bandeira, from GRID- Arendal
Sea grasses are marine flowering plants found in shallow marine waters and in estuaries across the country. Together with mangrove forests, which are abundant across the Sierra Leone estuaries, sea grass are key marine habitats that sustain fisheries and charismatic fauna, such as sea turtles, provide coastal protection, sequester carbon therefore reducing climate change, oxygenate the ocean making it clean without pathogens, and buffer ocean acidification.
In order to leave in marine environment, the sea grass themselves had to acquire adaptations such as (i) processing vertical stems with grass-like green leaves, interconnected with horizontal stems called rhizomes with roots providing necessary anchorage in the sea; (ii) adapt to uptake nutrients
both from roots (common in all plants) but also from leaves; (iii) having an hygrophilous pollination; (iv) possession of air-lacunnae in order to have the leaves to stand vertically in the water.
Within Sierra Leone, despite being only one seagrass
species Halodulewrightii, there is habitat complexity enhancing the diversity and abundance of fauna observed within this expedition: fish, clams and other invertebrates. Sizable fish observed at the shallow water appeared significant in both Seh and Bumpetuk Islands. Expedition’s members had the
opportunity to learn about dangerous or need-care animals such as stingrays and sea snakes.
The Turtle Island lies in the south-eastern province of Sierra Leone. Its location is part of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) of Sherbro River estuary. The mission’s terms included discussion and assessment of ecosystem services as well as brainstorming on options to incorporate sea grass into national governance systems.
After the new sea grass meadow discovery, the team carried out informal community consultation about the value and importance of sea grass meadows, to the community themselves, as well as carried an open discussion on issues such on community engagement on sea grass conservation, building of a forum/network on sea grasses of both Seh and other sites within the Turtle Island archipelago. NIT, already a multi-actor forum will continue to monitor the progress of the sea grass comparing to its present status. Sea grass discoveries continue to unfold in Sierra Leone shiny waters!