Tuesday July 14, 2026
Global Seafood Alliance —
Seagrass meadows play a major overlooked role in feeding and nourishing coastal communities, according to a study led by researchers at Stockholm University.
The research, published in Cell Reports Sustainability, found that fisheries associated with seagrass meadows provide higher levels of essential nutrients than those linked to neighboring coral reefs.
Although coral reefs are widely recognized for supporting coastal fisheries, the researchers found seagrass meadows may be just as important, and in some cases even more important, for the fish people catch and eat.
The research team studied fish from 20 seagrass meadows and 20 coral reefs along a 1,864-mile stretch of coastline from Kenya to Mozambique. They looked at six key nutrients that people need to stay healthy, like calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acids. Instead of looking at each nutrient one by one, the scientists treated fish more like natural multivitamins.