The head of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners has said he is concerned a recent BBC report on dredging may have misled viewers over proposals for the harbour and damage to marine life.

Captain Mark Sansom, the company's chief executive and harbour master, sought to reassure the public after the Countryfile programme aired that the dredging would not involve live maerl beds.

He said after Sunday’s programme: "Although we are pleased that important messages around the economic case for dredging were highlighted, we are concerned that viewers may have been misled by some of the coverage.

"We want to reassure viewers that the current proposal does not include any dredging of the live maerl bed shown on screen by Countryfile. The seabed in the proposed dredged channel is made up predominantly of mud, sand and clay with a covering of dead maerl.

"Whilst there are live maerl fragments in part of the area the seabed is quite different in character to the live maerl footage shown."

During the programme on BBC One, rural correspondent Tom Heap examined the economic and environmental considerations surrounding the dredging of ports. He interviewed Captain Sansom on board a pilot boat on the approach channel to Falmouth Docks, which the the commissioners and the docks authority have applied to dredge to allow entry to larger vessels.

In his interview Captain Sansom highlighted the importance of dredging to the port's future, citing a study commissioned by Cornwall Development Company which reports that the port supports 1,400 jobs resulting in approximately £37 million in salaries that go into the local economy.

Mr Heap also interviewed Dr Miles Hoskin, an environmentalist opposed to the dredging plans, who said: "You’re taking a lot of heavy equipment and gouging chunks out of the seabed, and if you’ve got something interesting there beforehand, you won’t have it there afterwards."

In another comment after the programme aired, Captain Sansom added: "We are also disappointed that a fuller discussion of the trial dredge designed by Plymouth University was not included.

"The study was designed with oversight from an independent panel made up of eminent scientists. They considered the scale of the trial to be appropriate to satisfactorily test the effectiveness of the proposed mitigation measures which was its purpose."