Underwater World of Falmouth Harbour Revealed in Masters Project

Falmouth Harbour has been the focus of a unique project led by MSc Marine Conservation student Natasha Bamford from the University of Plymouth. With support from the Falmouth Harbour team, Natasha deployed Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS) to capture the diversity of marine life in the inner harbour waters.

Two BRUVS systems were positioned in different locations – one off Trefusis Head and another beside the intertidal reef cubes and habitiles installed under the Church Street Car Park harbour wall. The aim is to compare a natural rocky reef with an artificial one, to discover whether artificial habitats attract the same variety of species.

The footage has already revealed a fascinating variety of species. Highlights include a nursehound shark, a conger eel, and five types of crabs – spider, shore, velvet swimmer, edible and hermit. Fish sightings range from bass, wrasse, shanny and poor cod, through to shoals of more than 100 sand smelts. Snakelocks anemones were also recorded.

Falmouth Harbour Environment Manager, Vicki Spooner, described the project as an exciting chance to uncover the harbour’s hidden marine world. Natasha now has around 30 hours of video to analyse, providing valuable data for her Masters dissertation.

The initiative was made possible with funding support from Our Only World, who also helped install the artificial reef structures, and a grant from Sea-Changers. Tina Robinson of Our Only World praised Natasha’s work and highlighted the importance of such collaborations for marine conservation.

Natasha hopes the research can be repeated annually and at different sites around the UK, building a clearer picture of how artificial reefs contribute to biodiversity and habitat restoration.

Falmouth Harbour will be sharing some of the project’s footage in the coming months, offering the public a rare glimpse into the underwater world on their doorstep.

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