The RYA and the Green Blue are currently offering a series of webinars on “Sustainable Anchoring and Mooring”, helping boaters become more aware of the existence and significance of protected seabed habitats and providing advice on the latest developments and good practice that can help minimise the potentially damaging impacts of anchoring activities.
Over the last couple of years, in partnership with with Natural England, they have been running the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Project, educating boaters on the role that seagrass and maerl beds play in carbon-capture, protecting various marine species and mitigating erosion.
It is well worth listening in, to understand more about how innovative mooring designs are playing an important role in reducing harmful impacts and why being able to identify protected areas, may help minimise accidental damage.
This is certainly a topic of interest, and those that manage moorings are taking increasing steps to understand, conducting surveys of their areas to be able to detect any of this type of growth.
Culum Matheson, General Manager in Mylor Yacht Harbour, Cornwall, where the marina administers a considerable number of swinging moorings beyond the marina confines, has worked with various types of moorings to assess what might work best for protecting the seabed. A very popular but shallow (2m at low water) mooring area, units need to cope with a 6m tidal range. Not enough elasticity doesn’t work for the tide/depth, but too much results in a wide swinging area at low tide, reducing the amount of boats that can use the space.
Other trials have involved floats attached to the lower part of the mooring chain.”This method has proved successful in that it stops the scouring of the seabed, but does also change how boats lie on the mooring as there is less of a ‘dampening’ effect from the weight of the chain. It also introduces a lot more plastic to the sea with the additional floats.”
Tune in to the free webinars being offered by the GreenBlue or visit their website for helpful videos:
Webinar Title: Sustainable Anchoring & Moorings: Protecting our Marine Habitats
- Tuesday 14th December – 19:30-20:30 – Falmouth/Helford
- Wednesday 15th December – 19:30-20:30 – Plymouth Sound & Estuaries
- Thursday 16th December – 19:30-20:30 – Solent Maritime
Register for FREE: https://thegreenblue.org.uk/get-involved/webinars/
