A new underwater reef is making waves by attracting new marine life to a coastal museum.
The SeaHive artificial reef, installed in the harbour waters outside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC), Falmouth, is already teeming with sea creatures and bringing an underwater world to life.
Positioned directly in front of the museum’s underwater windows in the Tidal Zone, the installation is giving visitors a glimpse of marine life beneath the surface.
Stuart Slade, interim director at the museum, said: "We have already seen lots of marine activity, and it’s wonderful to offer visitors the chance to see an underwater ecosystem thriving in front of them.
"The variety of marine life living on, in and around the SeaHive has started some great conversations with school children and families."
Funded by Sea-Changers and supplied by SeaHives Ltd, the SeaHive is a permanent addition to the Tidal Zone and could support marine life for decades, if not hundreds of years.
The structure is made from recycled abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear collected around the UK, and is designed to boost marine biodiversity by providing refuge for fish and invertebrates.
Formed from seven hexagonal tubes, the SeaHive creates nearly eight square metres of habitat for filter-feeding animals and shelter for other species.
The tubes are rotomoulded in South Wales, using a simple process without the need for additional chemicals that could leach into the environment, and the reef is suspended by a stainless steel chain and retaining band above the sea bed, so there’s no risk of it being tumbled around and breaking into smaller pieces.
The museum has already seen a large Ballan wrasse, sea squirts, tube worms, crabs and nudibranchs making use of the reef.
The Tidal Zone now also includes two new installations highlighting the problem of marine plastic pollution.
Whale in the Room, by Andre Kong Studio, features 380kg of marine debris recovered from Cornish waters by Clean Ocean Sailing.
The Bottle Top Chain, created by the Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition, is part of a chain made from more than 65,000 bottle tops collected from Cornish beaches.
Mr Slade said: "Our Tidal Zone is a firm favourite with visitors and a powerful opportunity to showcase the incredible biodiversity of our waters alongside the significant challenges we face in protecting it."
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