Studland Bay seahorses - thin end of the wedge?

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I know this story has been around for a while but did anyone notice that it made the BBC breakfast news this morning? Does this mean that the anti boating ecomentalists are starting to be heard and how long will it be before anchoring is banned altogether in Studland Bay?
This happens quite often in the Med in that bays and calas are occasionally closed to anchoring for a season or two to allow the sea bed to recover but then there is always another cala around the corner in which to anchor. In contrast, Studland Bay is one of the best and most popular anchorages on the S Coast and, if anchoring is prohibited, you can bet that it will be for ever, not just a couple of seasons
As a boater who has enjoyed many a relaxing afternoon swinging to the hook off Studland, I think this would be a great shame but, as is the way with all these things, I guess we'll all meekly toe the ecomentalist line. But if they win the argument over Studland, how long will it be before other reasons are found to ban us from other anchorages or even to ban motorised boating from vast areas of water altogether? I know the RYA is fighting a rearguard battle against the wholesale implementation of marine conservation zones and the prohibition of navigation within them but I would say, get out there and enjoy these areas in your boat whilst you can because you probably won't be able to do so in the future
 
..and there was me planning my new boat. Do you think they will extend this to North Wales, or do you think its too far away and Welsh to bother with...
 
Yes more about it here There is a trial going on this year and no doubt the results will show a ban is required. We have had many a happy afternoon at Studland but never had a good overnight there. Smoothish glassy seas yes but with a very small swell that somehow seems to get amplified into some serious rocking
 
but it wouldnt just be motorboats would it.. presumably a sailboat anchor causes damage too.
Best get a good marina berth, as we wont be going anywhere. Mind you, think how cheap the boat would be without those engines installed /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
..and there was me planning my new boat

[/ QUOTE ]

You can't plan a new boat without asking the forum what to buy first /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif So, what is it?
 
I think we should approach this in the same way as our Asian cousins would,

A delicate sparkling water batter, corn oil at about 200- 230 degrees for about 30 seconds should do, squeeze of lime with a little mayo perhaps?

Bon appetite /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
How about the sort of thing they have at Cabrera ,some fixed bouys and a restriction on the total number of boats there at anyone time ?
 
Yup, buoys are being laid in a number of sensitive Balearic anchorages but AFAIK, Studland is outside the jurisdiction of any harbour authority so who's going to lay them and maintain them and would there be a sufficient number?
 
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so who's going to lay them and maintain them and would there be a sufficient number?

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YBW forum members /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Start a new thread mike inviting scutlleburks to joins us.

If several of us each take a buoy say blue, drop it over the side with a bit of old chain and tyre full of concrete we can establish our own 'forum' trots.
the fall and rise is minimal.
We write Forum on each buoy , only rule is you check it first and any other forum member can raft along side. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I dropped my own swinging mooring a number of years ago in Loch Long, it is not difficult or expensive.
I am sure if a thread is started there will be proper advice over technical spec. but mine lasted for 3 seasons (could still be there now, I have no idea as I havent been up there for years.)

I would start the thread but scuttleburks dont always give me such a warm welcome /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
And I think we should have the whole forum involved in this.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I dropped my own swinging mooring a number of years ago in Loch Long, it is not difficult or expensive.
I am sure if a thread is started there will be proper advice over technical spec.

[/ QUOTE ] Here is the definitive Forum mooring-laying thread /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif.

Now, where did I put that railway engine wheel?
 
Thanks jhr but the season will have ended by the time I wade through that lot /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Any chance of a summary ?

My swinging mooring consisted of some house bricks (those that have holes in the middle) tied together with my mums washing line, the float was an old 5 gallon oil drum.


It looked pretty substantial /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
OK; I confess. I read it quickly, thought "That looks interesting; I'll bookmark it and read it more thoroughly at some point" and never have managed to work my way right through all the detail. But it is full of good stuff.

For Studland, I reckon we need an old lorry tyre filled with cement (good footprint for seahorse-crushing) and with chain embedded in it, and a large plastic milk or oil carton as a buoy - that way everyone will think it's a pot marker, curse loudly, and give it a wide berth, thus leaving it free for thee and me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
The sand is too hard in Studland for that kind of mooring (which works well in mud) to be secure, you need anchors dug in.

Moorings in Studland wouldn't work IMO. There are busy weekends when hundreds of boats are there so you would need hundreds of moorings but then 90% of the time the place is empty. Add to that the need to lay and inspect them annually would be very costly so dues would be charged and add in wages for the dues collector (even if nobody turns up because of the wind or weather) and you have another south coast rip off.

Better to let the seahorses do their own thing happily just as they are at the moment apparently, they seem much less bothered by boats anchoring than some seem to think.
 
Yep, seahorses seem to have returned as more boats have started anchoring there. We need a study to show that it's the boat anchors stirring up the bottom that provides food for the strange little critters, then we can all get EU grants towards our boating costs if we anchor there.
 
Seems it's happened then, half of Studland Bay to be off limits to boaters for two years. Anyone know which half? If it's the northern end, that's less of an issue, but if it's the southern end, in the shelter of Sir Harrys, then that's a PITA.


"Boaters told to make way for Studland seahorses
Boatowners will be asked to keep clear of one half of Studland Bay for the next two years. This will allow marine conservationists to carry out a study into an underwater field of seagrass which is home to the UK's largest breeding colony of seahorses.

The study will help to establish if the seagrass, a crucial habitat for spiny and short-snouted seahorses, is being damaged by anchors and moorings. Half of the bay will be marked out while the study is taking place.

Seahorses are already a protected species under the Countryside and Wildlife Act, but a spokesman for Natural England said that it is difficult to enforce the law. "To act, we would need to demonstrate that any damage was in fact damaging the seahorses," he said, "and we would need to demonstrate that the damage was deliberate or reckless."


Motor Boats Monthly, 30 April 2009"
 
The crux of the matter is for years Studland has been one of the most visited anchorages on the south coast in the summer, yet the sea horses have managed to establish themselves there in abundance, doesn’t that tell anyone anything.
 
Plus they have started breeding in marinas now. I would have thought all those propellers would have been more of a danger than the odd anchor.

Brian
 
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