The Living Sea Walls project explores how we can bring nature back to North Wales’ built coastlines. By installing specially designed panels onto sea defences and harbour walls, the project created new habitats for marine life in places where natural rocky shores are scarce.
LIVING SEA WALLS
The Problem
Sea walls, piers, and harbour structures are essential for protecting our coast and supporting local communities, but they’re not built for nature. Unlike rocky shores, these smooth, uniform surfaces offer little shelter for marine life.
As this type of infrastructure spreads, it’s replacing valuable coastal habitats. Globally, more of the seafloor is now affected by artificial structures than by mangroves or seagrass beds and the same trend is emerging here in North Wales.
The solution
Although marine infrastructure has contributed to habitat loss, it can also be part of the solution. North Wales Rivers Trust have installed Living Sea Wall panels at three sites along the Menai Strait, demonstrating how we can enhance biodiversity without removing infrastructure.
These panels mimic the texture and complexity of natural rocky shores, creating spaces for marine species to settle and grow. The methods used are affordable, adaptable, and scalable — offering a practical way to bring life back to our increasingly built-up coastlines and engage communities.
Community VOLUNTEERS
Living Sea Walls not only create vital habitat for marine wildlife, they’re also a brilliant way to engage communities with the incredible sea life found along our Welsh coast.
Site selection surveys
Ahead of the installation, NWRT volunteers surveyed a range of sea walls, piers, and harbour structures along the Menai Strait to assess their potential for ecological enhancement. They considered factors like wall material, tidal range, wave exposure, existing marine life, and ease of access for installation and monitoring. These surveys helped identify the most suitable sites; where panels would have the greatest impact and could be installed safely and effectively.
Water Quality Testing
Marine water quality tests were given out to trained ambassadors who have been undertaking chemical testing along the Menai Straits.
Biodiversity Surveys
As part of the project, biodiversity surveys were carried out to find out what marine life was already living on and around the sea walls along the Menai Strait. Volunteers and staff recorded a variety of species, from, limpets, and seaweeds to small crabs. These surveys gave us a baseline understanding of the existing wildlife at each site, helping us track how the Living Sea Walls panels support biodiversity over time.
EDUCATION
As part of our community outreach, we worked with local primary schools to help young people connect with the marine environment in a creative, hands-on way. Pupils took part in workshops where they designed and shaped their own Living Sea Walls tiles using clay, learning about how structure and texture can create habitat for sea life.
To celebrate the project, local mural artist Aliss Curtis worked with the school community to create a colourful, educational mural on the school grounds — showcasing the amazing species that live along the Menai Strait and inspiring pride in our local coastline. The mural also features mock Living Sea Walls tiles inspired by the pupils clay designs.