University of Plymouth

08/28/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/28/2025 06:29

Student project reveals the underwater world of Falmouth Harbour

A student from the University of Plymouth is using her dissertation project to reveal some of the fascinating marine life living in the waters of Falmouth Harbour.
MSc Marine Conservation student Natasha Bamford is collaborating with the team managing the harbour to develop and deploy Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems units (BRUVS) on the harbour floor.
She has now captured around 30 hours of footage featuring species including a nursehound shark, five types of crabs (spider, shore, velvet swimmer, edible and hermit crab), a conger eel, snakelocks anemones and a range of fish including bass, wrasse, shanny, and poor cod.
The cameras have been deployed in two areas, one off Trefusis Head and the other beside the intertidal reef cubes and habitiles installed below the harbour wall at Church Street car park, and Natasha will now be carrying out a statistical analysis to compare species between the two reef sites ahead of writing her masters dissertation.
She is hoping her project can be done on a yearly basis and in different locations to see if reefs remain healthy and to understand how artificial reefs are working around the UK, comparing sites to see where they are most effective.
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