If you go down to the Pool today......don't worry, that shape in the water is not some unexpected monster of the deep, but a diver searching out for plants, rare or otherwise, growing in the waters of Loe Pool.
As part of a four year project funded by Natural England, the divers will be building on work carried out by the National Trust since 1999 to find out more about what plants are growing within Loe Pool.
Since the mid-seventies, the Pool has suffered from algal blooms, caused by too many nutirients entering the water from the sewage works in Helston and at Culdrose and from farms and settlements up the catchment. Recent work carried out at the Helston Sewage works have led to a dramatic reduction in some of these nutrients and we haven't seen an algal bloom here for over six years and the water quality and clarity is improving, allowing us to let divers get underwater to see what is growing there.The divers, from Kennack Diving School www.kennackdiving.co.uk have been working under the guidance of Dr Jan Dinsdale who has been surveying the water plants from a boat for the past 10 years.
Jan said “we’re not sure what we will find. The years and years of algal blooms have really taken their toll on the water plant life in Loe Pool and we haven’t been able to find many plants at all during our recent boat surveys. But the good news is that things are improving. Getting down under the water to have a really close look will give us vital information about the state of the natural vegetation on the bottom of the lake and what potential it has to flourish as the water quality continues to improve. Over time we’d like to see plenty of plants growing up through the water from the bottom of the lake. The return of these plants is a vital step in the recovery of the lake’s natural balance; they will help to make sure that the algal blooms are a thing of the past”
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| Reporters from Westcountry TV interview David and Des from Kennack Diving |
Early reports are that the divers have brought three types of plant to the surface and one old bottle - marked Sleeman and Co, Helston. They'll return again in September for a further survey.
Alastair
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