Credit: Matt Slater
5K Across The Bay
It's time to put your best swimming foot (flippers) forward! On Saturday 13 July, the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust are facilitating another 5K Across The Bay event; this year, they're also raising funds for Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Ocean Emergency Fund, helping us to ensure that marine life and habitats can continue to thrive around our coasts for generations to come!
By participating in this challenging endurance event with a difference, you will have the unique opportunity to swim from Rosemullion Head to Pendennis Point, all of which is in the sights and fabulous marine delights of the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation, a designation afforded to the area due to the incredible marine habitats lurking beneath the waves. Therefore, by tackling the waves around this stunning part of our coast, you will quite literally be assisting with the conservation of these delicate habitats and the marine life that depends upon them.Â
Credit: Matt Slater
The Event And Support
By participating in the 2024 5K Across The Bay event, not only will have the utterly unique opportunity to take in the thrills of the stunning Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation, but you will receive the following:
- Tailored fundraising support, from start to finish, from our friendly team
- The chance and ability to meet similar-minded people with similar goals and interests as you
- A free branded swimming cap (upon arrival and registration at the event itself)Â
- Fish and chips supper (from the local Harbour Lights fish and chips takeaway in Falmouth)Â
- A prize for the top fundraiser - to be announced!Â
In return, please note that we ask for £50 of sponsorship and a registration fee of £50. To help you achieve your fundraising goals, Cornwall Wildlife Trust will help you out.
For more information, and for details on how to apply, please contact Sam Lucock (Community Fundraising and Support Officer) at Sam.Lucock@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.ukÂ
Credit: Matt Slater
Where your fundraising will go
All funds raised at this event will be donated to our Ocean Emergency Fund. This will enable us to continue with our vital conservation work to secure the future of the marine wildlife and watery habitats found around our >500 miles of Atlantic coastline.Â
Among the two habitats that need our help the most are the precious seagrass and maerl beds that can be found in the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation. Both habitats are incredibly delicate, but help to sequestrate "blue carbon", making them invaluable in the fight against climate change. They also provide a plethora of other ecosystem services, and provide invaluable habitat for a wide array of marine critters. However, they are very much threatened and need as much of our help and attention as possible. You can learn more about these habitats below.
By fundraising for the Ocean Emergency Fund, you could help us out in the following ways:Â
*£10 could purchase 10 hessian bags to securely plant seagrass seedlings to restore seagrass meadows.
*£20 could allow us to sample and test 10 water quality samples, helping to inform the secure of the future of these habitats.
*£50 could pay for a specialist talk to boat owners, empowering them to make alternatives to anchoring on seagrass beds.
*£100 could pay for one snorkel survey to assess impacts and monitor our seagrass beds.
Credit: Matt Slater
Seagrass meadows
Seagrass is, despite appearances, not a seaweed, but the ocean's only flowering plant - and it's found right here on our doorsteps. The seagrass meadows found in the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation are one of the few remaining places in the South West where this internationally threatened type of habitat is in a good condition. Home to a wide range of species - from cuttlefish and commercially important fish to seahorses and rays - as well as providing a range of ecosystem services, its long-term survival is critical.Â
Credit: Matt Slater
Maerl beds
These stunning bright purple habitats are actually formed from very slow-growing algae - and, if you look closely, you will also see that they are also teeming with life! They are also another powerhouse in the fight against climate change by sequestrating carbon into the complex calcium carbonate structures. The extensive maerl habitat found within the confines of the Fal and Helford Special Area of Conservation, which your route will directly take in, is considered to be one of the best examples of this nationally rare habitat in the country.