Seagrass Research in Sri Lanka

At the end of August, our new Research Assistant Benjamin Jones spent 10 days conducting fieldwork in Pattalam Lagoon, in the north west of Sri Lanka. This research was undertaken to develop global links between seagrass and food security, using Sri Lanka as a case study. Ben visited Puttalam Lagoon in Sri Lanka and set up socio-economic and fish landings surveys with a research collaborator who will complete the surveys. Ben deployed underwater video system for rapid habitat assessment and visual fish census and conducted household surveys, fisheries landings surveys and market surveys. 

The Puttalam Lagoon is a large 327 km² lagoon in the Puttalam District of western Sri Lanka and is both economically and ‪‎ecologically important to the 250,000 people who live in the area. Throughout his time in Sri Lanka, Ben measured over 6000 fish, from 100 landings.  This case study will contribute to growing database covering South East Asia and beyond, linking seagrass meadows and fisheries globally. Our collaborator in Sri Lanka will now be collecting additional data and will attend the International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW12), South East Asia workshop session in October 2016.