savvy navvy is the first navigation app on the market helping to build environmental awareness by showcasing vital seagrass data.
The Protect Our Beds project is an exciting collaboration between not-for-profit, Clean Sailors, the Ocean Conservation Trust and all-in-one navigation app, savvy navvy.
The aim is to help stop vital seagrass being destroyed and to bring greater awareness to water-users on where sensitive seabeds lie and encouraging them to minimise disruption, especially anchoring.
Seagrasses combat climate change by absorbing and storing huge amounts of carbon, but are estimated to be the fastest disappearing habitat on the planet mainly due to avoidable human activity.
Since launching in early 2023 we have been expanding the seagrass data in the app as contributors have come forward from the UK, Europe, the USA and the Channel Islands.
Protect Our Beds collates geo-spatial data on sensitive seabeds and shows the information in the savvy navvy navigation app - providing sailors and water-users with a clear view of where seagrass beds are and alternatives to anchoring.
Seagrass meadows store 10% of the ocean’s carbon and are key protagonists in the combat of climate change. They can be up to 35 times more efficient at absorbing carbon than rainforests of the same area and also provide a habitat for rare and endangered species. Despite the importance of seagrass, in the UK alone, we have lost nearly half our seagrass beds since the 1930s, mainly due to avoidable human activity.
Where available, nearby eco-moorings are clearly marked in the app - encouraging our boating community to make more informed anchoring choices when out on the water.
It’s the “first time the boating community can easily understand what lies beneath the keel”, according to the Ocean Conservation Trust, who are scientific advisers in this project.