Dale -sea grass visitor moorings

[bitbaltic]

I’ve just picked up this:



one of several new moorings that seem to have been laid this year in order to save seagrass at Dale.

Are we going to have a mini-studland situation I wonder.

the moorings seem very tidy and new though.

bit more info: Restoring Seagrass in Dale - Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum (PCF)

 

[penfold]

They're certainly regurgitating a lot of the same questionable 'stats' that are being trotted out elsewhere. That mooring does look nice though, I'm curious what the specification of it is given some kinds of mooring are likely to be pretty rough on seagrass, others not so much.

 

[doug748]

I’ve just picked up this:

View attachment 116421

one of several new moorings that seem to have been laid this year in order to save seagrass at Dale.

Are we going to have a mini-studland situation I wonder.

the moorings seem very tidy and new though.

bit more info: Restoring Seagrass in Dale - Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum (PCF)

I think they are to be congratulated. Do take the trouble to tell them how pleased you were and how their initiative and contrast it with the ill will stirred up by the debacle at Studland.

I am sure Richard Unsworth at Swansea, and his team, is are the good guys in this. I am sure he correctly sees that education and cooperation are the key to real progress. Nobody wishes the environment ill, a thousand foot soldiers on the ground is infinitely better than the dissent stoked by threats and bans from the blundering people in Dorset.

This excellent statement of intent is a grand example of what is missing in Dorset:

https://www.pembrokeshirecoastalforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DSSG-MoU-FINAL.pdf

Anyone in the RYA might ask them if they have read this and support it?

.

 

[zoidberg]

It seems a much more civilised approach to 'shared use' of the resource. I just hope the same spirit of respect for other users' requirements persists, and we don't see a RIB full of 'mooring inspectors' coming round collecting mandatory fees in a year's time.

I have on occasion used Dale as a passage anchorage, dropping the 'ook for a few hours' sleep before sneaking off in the grey dawn. Perhaps some kind soul might mark/indicate where these new V-moorings are - and where the seagrass seeding is, the better to avoid it.

 

[bitbaltic]

No idea on the seeding. The visitor moorings are roughly where the red line is, seaward of the marked submarine cable, and in about 0.4m - 0.5m depth at LAT (my sounder gave 1.6m water at LW yesterday, with a height of tide of 1.2m). We are shallow draft so can get away with it being a bit springy; most yachts are only going to be able to use them (at low water) on neaps I guess.

 

[Seven Spades]

Fat load of use to bigger boats. If you are going to lay moorings they need to be big enough so that boats can raft or take bigger boats.

 

[zoidberg]

I imagine there's a limited budget....

Besides, there's a marina just a couple of miles away - and acres of anchoring space. Can't see the problem.

 

[bitbaltic]

Maybe they want to discourage bigger boats and bigger anchors

I counted 16 boats in the anchorage last night, 2 of us were on the new moorings (one of which was left free) and everybody else lying to their own gear.

 

[Dellquay13]

According to conversations I've had with Fil Marshall the moorings officer for Dale YC (and chair of the dale seagrass stakeholder group), the Swansea Uni moorings are just to the east of the eastern edge of the seeded areas, anchoring to the west of the visitor bouys is no longer welcome.
The permanent moorings to the south are unaffected, and bigger boats can still anchor east of the visitor bouys.

 

[graham]

We are parked on the middle one now in almost exactly the same place we have anchored lots of times.

All 3 are occupied .

Apparently they are maintained and insured by the port authority so I am more than happy to use them. 10 ton or 40 feet max is written on the buoy.

Still plenty of room to anchor further out or the pontoon is available.