Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of seagrass decline on (a) climate change, (b) fisheries and (c) the rate of coastal erosion.

Seagrass habitats offer a range of benefits to people and nature. They store and sequester carbon, support a variety of fish species and help prevent coastal erosion. These benefits would diminish were the habitats to decline in future.

To improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on marine and coastal ecosystems such as seagrass, Defra are supporting the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP). MCCIP synthesise the latest evidence on climate change impacts and predicted trends and publish evidence updates on topics including fisheries, coastal erosion and have previously published a report card specifically on seagrass habitats.

Natural England published their “Definition of Favourable Conservation Status for seagrass beds” in 2023. This report outlined seagrass habitat status accounting for historical decline, future pressures – including as a result of climate change – as well as listing beneficial functions seagrass beds provide including for a number of fish species.