Seagrass Monitoring in the Helford Estuary, Cornwall, UK

SURVEY DATE - OCTOBER 24th 2009!!!

2009-10-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

Come along, get wet and measure some seagrass. Email me for details.

Isles of Scilly Zostera Research Group - 1-8 August 2009

2009-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

No red tides on the Isles of Scilly, just crystal clear waters and some excellent diving. A big thank you to all on the trip, especially EVA for making it a great week. It was my first year and I learned a huge amount as well as having a lot of fun! Not to mention learning how to use the macro function on my camera, as you can see with the new title photo!! Although it was my first year, the group has been going to St Marys for over 14 years, where they conduct hugely important research into the spread of wasting disease and the overall health of the Zostera beds on the isles of scilly. Thanks again and I look forward to next year (if I'm allowed).

July/August 2009

2009-08-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

The first survey of the Helford eelgrass was due to take place at the end of July. Circumstances contrived against us however, and we postponed the survey until the second week of August. Upon my arrival back to the mainland, I was greeted with the news from Rhiannon that red tides of algae had been observed in the estuary and from my colleague, Tony Arden, that the visibility in Falmouth Bay had been terrible. A site inspection on the 14th August confirmed that the algae had reduced the viz at the deep transect to almost nothing and we decided in the interests of health and safety (and because I'm scared of the dark) to further postpone survey work until the next season, which is October. Keep an eye out for the official date, which will be posted up here first.

For more info on the recent red tides in Cornwall see;

www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/4546065.Falmouth_beaches_may_have_been_struck_with_Red_Tide
www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=20503
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8200387.stm

And for more detail on such algal blooms:

www.sams.ac.uk/research/departments/microbial-molecular/mmb-project-themes/harmful-algal-blooms

www.pml.ac.uk/research/remote_sensing/harmful_algal_bloom_monitoring.aspx

June 2009

2009-08-27T04:21:00.001-07:00

The month of June was all about finishing the site set up, ready for the first survey in July...as well as a few nice dives on the eelgrass! The eelgrass bed really springs to life in summer and it was great to see the abundance of crabs, anemones, sponges, worms and juvenile fish making use of the habitat. The picture below shows an example of the amount of small fish using the bed as a nursery ground...if only we could work out how to count them...!?

Photo: Mitchell Neilly

May 2009

2009-06-16T01:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 3rd May, a team of Seasearch divers visited the site. The seagrass looked in good health and there were a few surprise visitors...

Photo: A. punctata by Mitchell Neilly

...If you look very closely you can see two sea hares (Aplysia punctata) one on top of the other. There were lots of them around in the seagrass bed; I counted 16 alone but there were lots more. Angie Gall of the Wildlife Trust also spotted a clingfish (Lepadogaster lepadogaster) attached to one of the seagrass blades.

April 2009

2009-06-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

The first attempt to set up the transect lines didn't go all that smoothly. We had a few problems with equipment and the visibility wasn't great. However, we managed to insert 4 of the 6 permanent anchors and record GPS locations. In the weeks after, a combination of weather and busy schedules meant that we had to postpone the first survey until July, by which time we will have finished setting up the permanent transect lines.