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Falmouth Group 9 
2015
Background

The Falmouth Estuary is a ria system, that was formed during the last deglaciation period. When sea levels rose and led to the flooding of an existing river valley and surrounding low lying areas. These processes created the river and estuary system seen today; consisting of wetlands further inland and the deep channels such as Carrick roads. Falmouth is one of the largest natural harbours in the world (W .J Langston et al[1],2003)


The Fal is a Special Area Of Conservation (SAC) (W .J Langston et al[2],2003). It was designated due to the following features of interest:




Locations sampled

Offshore: On Tuesday 23rd June, the group went on a morning trip offshore on the RV Callista. Whilst offshore 3 stations were sampled. Weather conditions were dry and calm. Further details and maps available here.

Pontoon: Sampling occurred on Friday 26th June. The group travelled to King Harry Pontoon, Trelissick to take readings from 4 different probes every 30 minutes between the hours of 12:00 and 15:00 UTC. The pontoon is situated at the top of the Fal estuary. Further details available here.

Geophysics: Monday 29th June, the group spent all-day onboard the MTS explorer. A sidescan sonar towfish was used to survey the seabed. The sidescan image was used in the creation of a habitat map, backed up with a seabed video survey. Further details, including the completed habitat map, are available here.

Estuary: Wednesday 1st July, the RV Bill Conway was used to create a transect of physical, chemical and biological properties from within the estuary. Further details on the stations sampled available here.

Aims

Throughout the field course, group 9 aimed to survey the biological, chemical and physical characteristics of the the Fal Estuary. This allows comparisons to be made between the inshore and offshore environments.



Figure 1 - Admiralty Chart of Falmouth Harbour. From visitmyharbour.com, accessed 27/06/15.  Copyright UK Hydrographic Office.

W .J Langston, B.S. Chesman, G.R. Burt, S.J. Hawkins, J. Readman and P. Worsfold. April 2003. Characterisation of the South West European Marine Sites. Summary report. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom Occasional Publication No.14. [1]


W .J Langston, B.S. Chesman, G.R. Burt, S.J. Hawkins, J. Readman and P. Worsfold. April 2003. Fal and Helford cSAC. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom Occasional Publication No.8. [2]

References