The Education Hub is our new go-to resource for coastal information and learning materials. It is designed to provide students and teachers at schools, colleges, and universities with access to a wealth of educational resources related to the Dorset coast, including:
Please take a look and share with your education teams and contacts.
Your donation can make a huge difference to seagrass restoration at Studland Bay.
With your help, we’ll continue to restore this precious habitat and ensure people will be able to enjoy these waters for years to come. 10% of the ocean’s total burial of carbon is captured by seagrass and Studland has the capacity to produce 10 tonnes of oxygen a day – that’s enough for 10,000 people or the whole town of Swanage
100% of the funds raised through your donation will be used directly towards marine conservation at Studland Bay:
£5 could help to maintain the eco-moorings
£10 could help restore the habitat of the Spiny Seahorse – Studland is its main breeding ground!
£25 could help to support our research and monitoring programme
Corporate Partnerships
Do you work for or run a business that wants to give back to the marine world? The ambitious work of the partnership in the past few years has succeeded so far through the brilliant support of our core partners and through corporate donations. Join us on this journey for nature and find out how you can become a valued partner.
Seagrass Awareness Boards
In August 2024 the SBMP unveiled 8 navigation and seagrass awareness boards at marinas across the local area.
The boards help recreational boat users to identify the marine protected area, seagrass beds and voluntary no anchor zone (VNAZ) providing practical tips so everyone can navigate and minimise any damage through anchoring and have a greater understanding of where the 87 eco-moorings are located for public use.
Funded as part of the Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) FaSS grant awarded to the partnership in 2024, the design of the boards reflect those installed by the RYA’s environment programme The Green Blue but on a local, Studland specific level.
The partnership is once again offering marinas and yacht clubs the opportunity to book in a friendly and informative talk from the boating members of our Steering Group, all about Studland and the work of the SBMP over the coming months. Interested in booking? Please contact us.
Research & Monitoring
As a partnership we are very fortunate to be working with leading experts in marine conservation, with experience across numerous fields including marine ecology, social science, oceanography, marine policy and coastal dynamics who are monitoring the seagrass and marine life beneath the waves.
To support our monitoring programme, we now have a time-lapse camera installed overlooking the Voluntary No Anchor Zone. This camera takes multiple still images a day during the season when the full set of eco-moorings are out in the bay, and remotely sends them back to our Research and Monitoring Team. The images are then processed by software at the University of Southampton which can tell us the number of boats utilising the bay and help us to understand any patterns in boat activity. Having a better record and understanding of this will help us better protect the seagrass beds in Dorset’s largest seagrass meadow.
Have you booked your ticket for the DCF Conference?
Don’t miss out, tickets are selling fast for this year’s conference on Thursday 24th October 2024 at the Weymouth Pavilion. We are delighted with the full agenda of inspiring speakers and workshop on communicating difficult conversations with coastal communities. Click on button below for the agenda, further conference details and ticket bookings.
New Education Hub!
We’re really excited to share with you our new Education Hub webpage on the DCF website. The Education Hub is our new go-to resource for coastal information and learning materials. It is designed to provide students and teachers at schools, colleges, and universities with access to a wealth of educational resources related to the Dorset coast. Please take a look and share with your education teams and contacts.
The new DCF wave tank’s first outing was a huge success
BCP Council used the tank at the Bournemouth Air Festival, engaging with over 1500 people! You can have a chance to have a play with the wave tank at the DCF Conference.