Seagrasses, much more than "ugly weeds" stinking up your beach

still from Oc�ans

I couldn't let World Ocean's Day go by without trying to put out a more "scientific" post about the Oceans... and while I was writing up my review of the movie Oc�ans I remembered joking a bit with my friends about a certain scene where a dugong in the Red Sea is eating seagrass. What tickled us was the idea of the poor fellow nuzzling around the sand for these very small leaves which didn't seem to be all that abundant, when he could just hang out (if such a thing were possible) off-shore from Alicante and enjoy a diet of proper Posidonia oceanica, a much larger species of seagrass which forms meadows in the shallow sandy waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Wishful thinking... I'd love to run into one of these guys while diving off the Cabo de las Huertas, but I'm afraid even the Med isn't warm enough for them. :o(

For World Oceans Day the Ocean Project suggests we pick a favourite animal and protect it. Well those of you who've been reading me for a while know I'm not great at following instructions so I'm breaking out and choosing a PLANT!!! Ha! Anyone familiar with it will have guessed from the previous paragraph that I'm about to talk about a species of seagrass known as Posidonia oceanica. Why a seagrass? Well for one thing hopefully to change the minds of anyone who might harbour negative feelings towards this plant. I know I did as a child. It clutters the beach, makes it "icky" to swim in certain areas... and it stinks! At least that's how I felt as a child, now the smell just reminds me of the Mediterranean...

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