An experiment sparked by seaweed growing on a disgruntled Pembrokeshire fisherman’s lobster-pot ropes has delivered an unexpected result, with simple underwater structures now becoming home to 76 types of marine life.
Scientific trials, backed by Welsh rum brand Barti, saw sea slugs, porcelain crabs, limpets, fan worms and more colonise experimental structures off the coast, creating new underwater habitat where marine creatures could settle and grow.
Now the Pembrokeshire brand is exploring whether the habitat can be sustained for longer and ultimately used to support healthier seas on a much bigger scale. Marine habitats provide vital places for species to feed, shelter, reproduce and grow, while healthy seas also support fishing, tourism and livelihoods in coastal communities.
Pembrokeshire-based Barti Rum is now funding the next phase of Barti & The Big Blue alongside regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm Câr-y-Môr.
HOW IT STARTED:
In 2020, Pembrokeshire fisherman Danny Curtis found an unprecedented amount of seaweed growing on his lobster-pot ropes, growth he regularly had to cut off and throw back into the sea. It sparked an idea for Barti founder Jonathan: could the fisherman’s nuisance actually be useful?
Jonathan and Danny began experimenting, before bringing in Swansea University, Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum, MEECE/ORE Catapult and marine biologist Jon Moore to investigate the idea properly.
In February 2023, twelve 15-metre experimental rigs were placed at the META Dale Roads test site in Pembrokeshire.
The structures were rapidly colonised, posing a bigger question – if marine life will readily make a home on relatively simple structures, could more of that habitat be deliberately created and sustained?
Jonathan Williams, founder of Barti Rum, said:
“The whole thing started because Danny was moaning about seaweed growing all over his fishing gear. I remember thinking: hang on, if all that life wants to grow there without us doing anything, could we actually use that?
“Barti exists because of the sea, there’s even seaweed in the rum, so I’ve always felt we should put something back into it.
“We’ve always had a very simple view of it. As a business that’s so connected to the coast, we must take some responsibility for looking after it.
“For me, The Big Blue is about putting something back into the place that’s given us so much. And I love the fact all of this started with Danny and his fishing ropes.
“To think that our little Welsh rum brand could play even a small part in something that could make a real difference to our seas would make me incredibly proud.”
Barti is now funding the next stage of the experiment alongside Câr-y-Môr, a regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm based on the Pembrokeshire coast, which also became involved in the project’s earlier grassroots experimentation.
The new phase will explore how long these habitats can last, what happens as the natural materials supporting them eventually break down, whether established marine growth can be successfully transferred and what happens to that biomass when structures reach the end of their lives.
Owain Haines, Managing Director of Câr-y-Môr said:
“Câr-y-Môr is delighted to support the Barti Rum Blue Carbon Project by deploying test kemp ropes on our 3 hectare Shellfish and Seaweed farm in Ramsey Sound. This sea farm with its unique fast flowing class A waters has already started growing naturally settled Seaweed and mussel spat on these natural ropes. We will be monitoring the growth over the coming months and calculating the carbon being captured. Diolch yn fawr Jonathan for being one of the founding members and investors in Câr-y-Môr and inviting our Sea Farm team to help with this innovative project.
Jonathan’s ambition is for The Big Blue to eventually reach other parts of the Welsh coastline too, with North Wales firmly in his sights as the project develops.
Jonathan added:
“Pembrokeshire will always be where this started, but I’d love to see The Big Blue travel further around the Welsh coast. North Wales is somewhere we’d really like to take it next and, if we can build the evidence and find the right partners, ultimately there’s no reason the thinking has to stop there.”
With significant new infrastructure expected in waters such as the Celtic Sea over the coming years, could structures we put into our seas in the future also be designed to give marine life somewhere to live?
The team ultimately hopes to gather enough evidence to explore whether simple marine habitats could one day be scaled alongside infrastructure such as floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.
