Event: Seascape Symposium II: Reconnecting the Seascape

In 2022, the first Seascape Symposium explored ecological connectivity across temperate coastal habitats, such as seagrass, saltmarsh, native oysters, and kelp forests, with 150 attendees of scientists, regulators, policy makers and practitioners. The importance of integrated restoration of coastal habitats at the scale of the seascape is realised now more than ever, with collapsed European native oyster ecosystems, an accelerated global loss of seagrass over the last 100 years, 50% degradation of global saltmarshes, and 60% degradation of existing kelp forests. If global restoration targets are to be delivered, it is time to build on our understanding of the temperate seascape’s potential to deliver for nature and people at scale.

On 4th and 5th June 2025, ZSL will hold a second Seascape Symposium, “Reconnecting the Seascape”, in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth and the University of Edinburgh. Seascape Symposium II aims to connect coastal habitat experts to explore the principles of seascape restoration, update on advances in restoration science, habitat connectivity and monitoring, and continue to build a community that can work together to overcome the barriers to scaling up coastal habitat restoration.

Symposium Themes

• Principles of seascape restoration 
•  Advances in habitat specific ecology related to upscaling restoration 
• Advances in seascape restoration practice 
• Community-driven conservation 
• Advances in monitoring the marine environment at seascape scales 
•  Measuring and enabling connectivity 
• Source-to-Sea approaches 

Speakers 

We are delighted to announce the following speakers participating in the Seascape Symposium II, with further speakers, panellists and chairs still to be announced. Keep an eye on the event page for all the latest updates. 

• Dr Tundi Agardy, Sound Seas
• Dr Elisa Bayraktarov, The Nature Conservancy
• Elizabeth Beall, Finance Earth
• Georgina Chandler, ZSL 
• Alice Clark, University of Sussex
• Professor Rod Connolly, Griffith University 
• Anna Cucknell, ZSL
• Dr Aline Da Silva Cerqueira, Sussex Bay 
• Bryan DeAngelis, The Nature Conservancy 
• Dr Philine zu Ermgassen, University of Edinburgh 
• Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen, University of Oxford 
• Nathan Geraldi, NatureMetrics 
• Elena Grissi, Stanford University 
• Professor Martin Gullström, Södertörn University 
• Dr Luke Helmer, Blue Marine Foundation 
• Angela Lazou, Blue Marine Foundation 
• Dr Sally Little, Nottingham Trent University 
• Louise MacCallum, Blue Marine Foundation 
• Ffion Mitchell-Langford, Campaign for National Parks 
• Professor Iris Möeller, Trinity College Dublin 
• Dominic Pattinson, OSPAR Commission 
• Professor Joanne Preston, University of Portsmouth 
• Caroline Price, The Crown Estate 
• Danny Renton, Seawilding 
• Henrike Semmler Le, WWF Denmark Associate 
• Professor Richard Unsworth, Swansea University 
• Dr Maria Vozzo, CSIRO 
• Dr Emma Ward, Bangor University 
• Dr Raymond Ward, Queen Mary University of London 
• Dr Lisa Wedding, University of Oxford