Sea Torbay, the Coastal Management Partnership for Torbay, are thrilled to confirm that a new seagrass friendly mooring is now ready to be installed at Fishcombe cove, Brixham.
Sea Torbay is a voluntary partnership made up of various stakeholders from the private, public and voluntary sectors. Local conservation charity Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust (TCCT) and the Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI) have been supporting the logistics of the project.
The seagrass friendly mooring project was started in 2015 and has been funded by Natural England. It has been designed and built by Salcombe Harbour, who has successfully tested similar models in both Salcombe and Plymouth Sound. The mooring is now set to be deployed to Fishcombe Cove on 21st March 2017.
Millennium Marine will be responsible for picking up the mooring from Brixham Harbour on the day and transporting it around the coast to Fishcombe Cove where it will be installed.
The seagrass beds are a feature of the designated Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) and are of particular ecological value. Seagrass beds are one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth on par with coral reefs, but they’re one of the fastest declining too. They provide a nursery habitat for many commercially important species such as pollock, scallops and cuttle fish, and provide a home to the UK’s native seahorses. They also provide us with coastal protection and improve water quality. These fragile habitats are particularly sensitive to anchoring activity and unfortunately this can cause a lot of damage to the beds. The mooring will offer a safe management measure for these important habitats whilst still allowing boat users to enjoy the beauty and sanctuary of Fishcombe Cove.
Heather Carstens, Green Infrastructure Coordinator said:
“We hope that boat users, visiting and local, will use the mooring as an alternative to anchoring on the seagrass beds. The surface buoy is marked with details of the maximum length of vessels and we hope this will encourage use of the mooring in preference to anchoring.”
“The mooring will be monitored over the summer to look at how it is being used and any changes it may have made on the seabed. The CSI project will continue to monitor the seagrass beds across the Bay and are working closely with the community to get people involved in citizen science”.
Sea Torbay would like to thank all the members of the partnership for their support, involvement and in particular their hard work to enable this project to succeed.
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