The Fal Estuary located on the south coast of Cornwall in the UK. It is a drowned river valley or ria which is composed of many tidal creeks which flow into an area of deep water known as Carrick Roads (Somerfield, Gee & Warwick, 1994).  

The area of Fal and Helford is designated as a Special Area of Conservation, covering 6387.8 hectares (JNCC, No Date A). This gives the area strict protection under the EU Habitats Directive, as it is a high quality conservation site The Annex I habitats which are the main reasons for its designation are sublittoral sandbanks, mudflats, large shallow bays and atlantic saltmarsh meadow. Annex I habitats are those considered most in need of conservation around Europe (JNCC, No DateB). Both maerl, Phymatolithon calcerum and Lithoamnium coralloides and eelgrass, Zostera marina, are of particular importance as they act as nursery grounds for fish and shellfish which are commercially valuable (Newton & Hall-Spencer, 2011) (Heck et. al. 1995). These species can be found in the sublittoral sandbanks, with maerl being found in the St. Mawes area and eelgrass found at the mouth of the Fal and Helford estuary (JNCC, No Date A). The St. Mawes maerl also provides a habitat for the rare couch goby, Gobius couchi (JNCC, No Date A). The SAC lies on the border of the northern Boreal and southern Lusitanian biogeographical regions (Deeble and Stone, 1985) which allows warm water species to survive in the large shallow bays (JNCC, No Date B).

In 1992, contaminated water from the local Wheal Jane mine burst free, causing massive heavy metal pollution. This has been widely studied since the incident, and a government funded treatment plant put in place to prevent further contamination (BBC, 2012). Tributyltin is another common pollutant found in the Fal Estuary (Hagger et. al. 2009), as it can be used as an antifouling agent. The UK government has controlled the sale of tributyltin pains for use on small boats since 1985, as the agent can leach off the hulls of boats. The most well-known effect of tributyltin pollution is causing imposex in dogwhelks, Nucella lapillus (Santillo, Johnston & Langston, 2001).

References

Deeble, M., Stone, V., 1985. A port that could threaten marine life in England’s Fal Estuary. Oryx. 19:02 pp. 74-78.

Somerfield, P. J., Gee, J. M., Warwick, R.M., 1994. Soft sediment meiofaunal community structure in relation to long term heavy metal gradient. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 105. pp. 79-88.

JNCC, No Date A. Fal and Helford. [online] Available at: <jncc.defra.gov.uk/protectedsites/sacselection/sac.asp?EUcode=UK0013112> [Accessed 27/06/2015]

JNCC, No Date B. Special Areas of Conservation. [online] Available at: <jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-23> [Accessed 27/06/2015]

BBC, 2012. Wheal Jane unused mine contaminated water levels down. [online] Available at: <www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-20540013>  [Accessed 27/06/2015]

Newton, J., Hall-Spencer J., 2012. The impacts of commercial anchoring on maerl beds in Falmouth Bay. Falmouth Harbour Commissioners.

Heck, K. L., et. al. 1995. Composition, abundance, biomass and production of macrofauna in a New England estuary: Comparison among eelgrass meadows and other nursery habitats. Estuaries. 18:2. pp. 379-389.

Hagger, J. A., et. al. 2009. Application of biomarkers to assess the condition of European Marine Sites. Environmental Pollution. 157:7. pp. 2003-2010.

Santillo, D., Johnston, P., Langston W. J., 2001. Tributlytin (TBT) antifoulants: a tale of ships, snail and imposex. European Environment Agency Environmental Issue Report Number 22. pp. 135-148.

The Team

Group 4 consists of 8 students from the University of Southampton and 2 exchange students from the University of  Sao Paulo in Brazil. We are a mixture of Marine Biology and Oceanography undergraduates, this brings a variety of different skills and approaches to our tasks.

Samuel Chamberlain - Bsc Marine Biology with                                        Oceanography

Ollie Mclaren-Roberts - Msci Marine Biology

Marc Morris - Msci Marine Biology

Beth Sims -  Msci Marine Biology

Alice Gibbin - Msci Oceanography

Denise Prates - Bsc Oceanography

Guillemette Rident - Msci Marine Biology

Lu Wang -  Bsc Oceanography

Sarah Rose Alewijnse - Msci Marine Biology

Sérgio Giovannino -  Bsc Oceanography

Denise Prates

Disclaimer- The views shown here are solely of group 4 and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Southampton.

Falmouth 2015 Group

Home Habitat Pontoon Estuary Offshore

(Back to top)