MedGardens x Bentley

We headed to Mallorca to meet up with one of SeaTrees project partners, MedGardens. Our time was spent on the beautiful north coast of the island in the small bay of Formentor, the site of one of their seagrass & algae restoration projects.

The day kicked off with an incredible drive from Port de Pollenca through the winding hills down to the beach to meet the team. We arrived early so we took advantage of the empty beach and jumped in the ocean for a wake up swim and then sat under the pine trees to eat our breakfast.

We met with Jose Escano (you can call him Pin), Project Manager of MedGardens, Tati Benjumea who heads up Research & Ops for Macroalgae and Line Hadsbjerg, Founder of Cleanwave Foundation (the foundation that houses MedGardens, Cleanwave Education & Cleanwave Movement).

Pin took us for a short walk to the project site - part of one of their eco-tours that help tourists better understand the incredible marine ecosystems that surround the island. Such an immersive way to educate.

The morning was spent in the water with the team and some of their amazing volunteers - learning about macroalgae and the innovative way that MedGardens are working to restore it, growing the Cystoseiras in the lab on small clay plates (made by a local artisan) and then replanting them in the ocean.

Lunch was an epic picnic with tomatoes fresh from Pins’ garden and then we shifted into seagrass mode for the afternoon, with Laura Royo Mari, Research & Ops for Seagrass gave us a masterclass on how best to collect data, monitoring both density & coverage thanks to the volunteer dive team.

I think what stood out for me on this project was the phenomenal collaboration that's happening around these projects - founders of other NGO’s & orgs jumping in to volunteer for MedGardens (and vice versa), the value of sharing data & learnings together and the feeling that collectively, with multiple approaches, this island is brimming with ocean optimism.