Anger over plans for seaweed farm off Cornwall coast

Plans for a commercial seaweed farm off the Cornish coast have angered some residents.

Biome Algae and Carbon Sea Garden want to harvest sugar kelp in Gerrans Bay.

It will involve suspending lines 65ft (20m) apart, held in place by surface floats and anchored to the sea bed.

Locals said they were worried about the impact, but the applicants said the farm would benefit the marine environment and they were "open to constructive conversation".

One fisherman said the farm would "affect our livelihood" and a regatta organiser said he feared for the future of the regular event.

Fisherman Ben Taffinder, who works off Portscatho, said: "It's an area shared by small inshore boats, fishing sustainably from a number of ports here; Mylor, Portloe, Mevagissy, St Mawes and Falmouth, in some cases for generations.

"The issue with this is it's a 50-year licence and it will effectively privatise an area of the bay which is an asset for everybody to share."

"My issue is having worked as a commercial diver in the [River] Fal and serviced the mussel farms and moorings, I know what that infrastructure looks like and what it does to the habitat it goes into.

"The scale of this and the number of buoys they will be deploying means that there will have to be a large number of very large anchors with chains attached to them which will scour the seabed.

"It will affect our livelihood. It will make it more difficult for us to make a living."

Robin Edwards, race officer for Portscatho Regatta, said: "This proposed seaweed farm will take up a third of this bay and turn that into an exclusion zone.

"We would probably have to cancel the regatta."

However, applicant Carbon Sea Garden denied its proposal amounts to privatising part of bay.

"We're merely tenants" said company CEO Vinny Waldock, who pointed out the environmental benefits of using the harvested seaweed to replace plastic packaging and chemical fertilisers.

"I'm very passionate about the ocean, I'm very passionate about the environment and the planet." he said

Biome Algae CEO Dr Angela Mead, a co-applicant of the project, also stressed the green credentials.

"At the end of the day, what we are trying to do is create a greener future for our children and their children and generations moving forward, and preserve that marine environment that is so vital to tourism"

If approved, the 270-acre (110-hectare) site will be in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Marine Management Organisation said a consultation into the proposals was under way and was due to close on 12 January.

Follow BBC Cornwall on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].