For the experienced seagrass seed collectors, buckets soon begin to fill with the tips of stems.
For those new to the low tide trawl, they are few and far between to begin with.
Finding the right part of the plant, with seeds at the right stage for picking, takes a little while to get your eye in.
The pod-like leaf called a spathe is slightly rounder and paler than the darker, flatter blades of seagrass.
The seeds, when ready to pick, sit neatly in a row, slightly raised from the surface.
“Sometimes, it’s just about feeling around and you can kind of feel these short stems that feel like they’ve got a pack of Tic Tacs in them,” says volunteer Sophie Whitemoor.
Crouching alongside is fellow volunteer James Harper.
“I’m still building on my personal technique,” he says. “It’s just a case of looking for the most round stems, really.”
The group are incredibly upbeat, considering the time of their early morning search.
“It’s just a passion for me, really,” says Jackie Mellan. “Any opportunity I can come out and help with restoration projects then I do.”
For the next hour or so, the volunteers sift through the seagrass as it lays flat on the shore.
But it is a race against the clock and a turning tide means the small army of people gathering the harvest eventually beats a retreat to the shore.
The buckets are gathered back in the car park and the crop is carefully placed in a barrel of cool seawater to be taken for processing.
