Australia is home to much of the world's seagrass but we are losing it

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-06-25 01:00

Australia; International; NSW; QLD

Photo by Benjamin L. Jones on Unsplash

A new map of the seagrass around the world has revealed that Australia is home to a large chunk of the world's seagrasses, but we are losing them. The study found that almost 70% of the world's shallow-water seagrass occurs in five countries: The Bahamas, Cuba, Australia, the USA, and Indonesia. Between 2019–2020 and 2023–2024, seagrasses declined by around 1% per year, with Australia and The Bahamas among the biggest losers, and the researchers say this loss could impact carbon emissions. The research found that the majority of seagrass areas remain outside marine-protected areas.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Springer Nature, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Nature

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of New South Wales, James Cook University, The University of Queensland, Arizona State University, USA

Funder: J.P., J.L. and G.P.A. disclose support for publication of this work from a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Strategic University Research Partnership grant

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.