AN ISLE of Wight company that is working to bring biodiversity to sea walls has been applauded on Twitter by two well-known celebrities.

Actress and comedian Jennifer Saunders, and popular poet Pam Ayres, both gave Artecology a publicity boost by sharing its tweet on its Vertipool scheme.

Vertipools are artificial rock pools that offer a versatile solution for creating new wildlife habitat and delivering net ecological gains on defended coasts and harbours across the urban marine environment.

The Vertipool system has been used successfully on sea walls, timber groynes, concrete beams, gabions and sheet piling.

It delivers ecological enhancement to sea defences, ports, marinas and harbours and helps boost biodiversity and build ecological interest.

A tweet about them from Artecology's Nigel George grabbed the attention of Jennifer Saunders, who re-tweeted it, saying: "This is a brilliant company. Check out their website #biodiversityloss #ClimateAction #wildlife."

Pam Ayres wrote: "I don't know anything about this company, but I think their Vertipool is such a cracking idea for creating marine habitat on a barren surface. I hope they are hugely successful."

Nigel told the County Press: "The pools were an Isle of Wight innovation and were absolutely ground-breaking, globally, in getting people to look at making space for nature in built infrastructure.

"We have Vertipools in all sorts of places, from East Cowes and Bouldnor, Sandown Bay, then Scotland, Ireland, Wales and hopefully commissions coming up in Europe soon, both commercial and as part of EU-funded research projects.

"Our colleague Dr Alice Hall checked out the Bouldnor pools on Friday night and found a sea slug – a new species to add to the many that have moved into the pools since 2013."