Reuters :
In a remote stretch of the western Indian Ocean, a 24-year-old Mauritian marine scientist donned a snorkel and dived below the choppy waves to float in protest above the world’s largest seagrass meadow.
Holding a placard reading ‘Youth Strike for Climate,’ Shaama Sandooyea held her breath and hoped the images from her action would help spark more aggressive global action to fight climate change.
The vast stretch of seagrass at the Saya de Malha Bank has become a priority for conservation partly for its role in absorbing climate-warming carbon dioxide. Elsewhere, the world is losing some 7% of its seagrass cover per year due to dredging, rising ocean temperatures and other factors.
Thousands of marine species also rely on the Saya de Malha seagrasses for food and habitat, including endangered green sea turtles and rabbitfish, a crucial species for artisanal fisheries in the region.
“There is a lot of life in the ocean that we don’t know exists and which is magical. It shouldn’t be suffering because of the decisions that other people are making,” Sandooyea said on the deck of a Greenpeace boat, called Arctic Sunrise, while sailing out to the area with scientists and environmentalists in early March.
