In November 2018, the RYA hosted a follow-up workshop on EFMs, attended by partners from NGOs, government bodies, marinas, harbour authorities, academia, and manufacturers. The aim of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to bring people together to continue momentum from the previous years workshop. It gave us the opportunity to:
- Share knowledge and experience from on-going projects
- Identify solutions and mechanisms for addressing remaining issues of concern
- Introduce the potential for an EU Life project (ReMEDIES) to support EFM progress
- Help inform next steps for future work.
A key take home message was the preference for an alternative name for EFMs to avoid negative perceptions associated with the terms 'Environmental' or 'Eco'. The preferred option appeared to be 'Advanced Mooring System'.
This section contains the presentations from the day:
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A simple modification reduces mooring impacts on seagrass beds
The project aimed to assess the performance of a trial eco-mooring designed by the Community Seagrass Initiative, through the investigation of seagrass condition, sediment grain size and depth above rhizomes, and macrofaunal abundance and assemblage.
The trial eco-mooring was compared with a traditional swing mooring in the same seagrass bed.
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Seagrass condition following installation of mooring at Cawsand
Summary of the National Marine Aquarium study following the installation of environmentally friendly moorings at Cawsand. Surveys over two years indicate increased mixed results in terms of shoot number and leaf length recovery, likely due to failure of attachment rope. Surveys following point of failure indicate recovery.
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Porthdinllaen Seagrass Project
Porthdinllaen is a small village nestled in a small cove on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsular in North Wales. The bay encompasses one of Wales’ largest and densest seagrass meadows and is also an important safe anchorage for vessels, is home to a small number of fishing vessels and has approximately 90 moorings. This report provides an update on trials of adapted moorings.
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Helical Screw Pile Moorings
A report into the benefits of a bespoke mooring system trialled in Calstock in providing quantifiable torque measurements.
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Helford River EFM
An update on the mixed success of the Helford River installations. Initial surveys inicated improved successful propogation of seagrass plants, before a major failure of an elasticated mooring connection during major storms.
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LIFE ReMEDIES Project Bid update
An overview of a EU LIFE bid to improve conditions of European sites associated with boating. This presentation offers an introduction to the project partners and its aims, and progress of the bid.
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