Sandwich & Pegwell Bay

Client

Funded by the H2O Source2Sea project (Interreg). Adonis Blue Environmental Consultants delivered the work in partnership with Exo Environmental and the University of Essex.

The challenge

Sandwich and Pegwell Bay's coastal salt marsh, seagrass beds, and native oyster populations all needed their current condition and extent assessed. Salt marsh and seagrass are important carbon sinks and habitats, but their condition along this stretch of coast — and the potential to restore or expand them — was not well understood. Native oyster populations are in national decline and increasingly confined to isolated stretches of coast, so establishing whether reef-building populations were present at this site was also a priority.

What we did

During spring and summer 2022, Adonis Blue Environmental Consultants carried out ground-truthing surveys across Sandwich and Pegwell Bay. This included shoreline transects to assess salt marsh condition, and surveys to record seagrass coverage and assess the potential for native oyster restoration. Sediment samples were collected and analysed by the University of Essex. Exo Environmental complemented this with bathymetry surveys of the onshore areas, using grab samples and further seagrass searches.

The outcome achieved

The feasibility study identified points along Sandwich and Pegwell Bay where coastal salt marsh condition could be improved through targeted habitat management, laying the groundwork for a possible future nature-based solutions project. Findings on seagrass presence point to potential opportunities to enhance and expand these areas for blue carbon storage, while the survey also contributes to identifying and expanding native oyster reef habitat in a county where existing reefs are already known.

Star species: seagrass, native oyster, and coastal salt marsh indicator species (flowering plants).