Reflections Feature Stories

As science lead and ocean storyteller for Reflections, I reported on a range of stories about the ocean's blue forests. One story took me on a road trip to the west coast of Scotland in search of maerl. This unique red seaweed grows as loose, stony fragments on the seabed, creating a habitat rich with marine life. 

Excerpt from "The ancient climate hero nobody's heard of "

We arrive at the loch side as the heavens open for the third time that day. But the rain is not a problem for what we’re about to do. “It never rains underwater!” Saz exclaims. Before us is Loch Leven with a backdrop of west Scotland’s highest peaks. Underwater, growing in a tide swept channel between the shore and a small island, is a unique and ancient habitat that few people have heard of, and the reason Saz has brought me to this precise spot. Having driven 300 miles to get here, I’m excited to see it for myself, a magical bed of pink seaweed that might be headed towards extinction.

Swimming out from the shore we quickly reach the channel, “I think it's here, I’ll go down and check.” I wait at the surface as Saz hinges at the waist and dives. With a few kicks she’s already at bottom, the water is only a few metres deep. Rolling over she turns to look up at me and celebrates with a whole body gesture, arms and legs waggling in unison. Rising to the surface she emerges laughing “The maerl, we found it!”

Beneath us, what looks like grey, colourless gravel from above becomes a rose-tinted candyland up-close. Knobbly twigs and branches, spikey balls and half-tangerine sized dishes carpet the seabed in loose piles. Among them are empty shells, bright starfish, tube worms, sea snails, gobies that dart off leaving a cloud of silt in their wake and the odd feisty crab that rises up on its legs with brandished claws when I get too close. It’s a miniature wonderland full of life and I feel a wave of awe rising in me for maerl.

Read the full story, Maerl: the ancient climate hero nobody's heard of

Dip into my other Reflections stories: 

Plagued by sea urchins: tackling the biggest threat to underwater forests

How to hatch an oyster: raising oysters to seed the world

The power of seaweed: soap from the wild

One artist’s hope for the ocean: the art of seaweed

Blue forest bliss: the joy and sorrow of the ocean’s hidden forests