With its new #PosidoniaOceanica awareness campaign, AKTI Project and Research Centre shines a spotlight on one of the Mediterranean's greatest yet least appreciated natural treasures: the underwater meadows of Posidonia oceanica, the Mediterranean's iconic flowering seagrass. 

For millions of years, these underwater meadows have been working silently beneath the surface, keeping the Mediterranean alive.

They:

• Produce large amounts of oxygen and are among the Mediterranean's most important natural allies in the fight against climate change. 

• Capture and store vast quantities of carbon, making them one of the world's most important Blue Carbon ecosystems. 

• Filter seawater, stabilise seabed sediments and help keep our seas clean and crystal clear. Their presence is a sign of clean and healthy marine waters, as Posidonia oceanica can only thrive in clean environments. 

• Provide food, shelter and breeding grounds for thousands of marine organisms, supporting Mediterranean biodiversity and fisheries. If Posidonia oceanica meadows disappear, the species that depend on them will also be at risk. 

• Protect coastlines from erosion. Even after their leaves wash ashore, they continue to act as a natural shield against waves. 

Yet despite everything they do for us, Posidonia oceanica meadows are disappearing at an alarming rate, largely because of human activities.

According to Dr Xenia I. Loizidou, Chair of the Board of Directors of AKTI:

"Uncontrolled coastal development, desalination plants discharging brine, marinas and ports built where they should never have been, wastewater runoff from coastal developments and pollution are steadily destroying Posidonia oceanica meadows. And as if that weren't enough, the leaves that wash ashore continue to be treated as rubbish and removed from our beaches, stripping coastlines of their natural protection against erosion, depriving coastal ecosystems of valuable organic matter and costing Cypriot taxpayers hundreds of thousands of euros every year. Instead of protecting Posidonia oceanica, we destroy it and throw it away.

As long as we continue to see Posidonia oceanica as a nuisance rather than a priceless ecosystem, we will fail to recognise its true value. It protects our shores, sustains marine life and is one of the Mediterranean's strongest natural defences against climate change. So when we see microplastics, sea lice or dirty sea foam, we should neither be surprised nor wonder why. We caused them. We have destroyed Cyprus' coastal immune system." 

Through the #PosidoniaOceanica campaign, AKTI invites the public to look beneath the surface and discover the ecosystem that quietly protects our seas every single day.

Follow AKTI Project and Research Centre on social media and join us in seeing Posidonia oceanica, the true "lungs of the Mediterranean", through a different lens.