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Our Area

Mounts Bay Marine Group, established in 2019, is a community group associated to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, whose aim is to protect and conserve the local marine environment. The Group encourages awareness of the challenges and threats to marine life in the bay, helping Mounts Bay to be a rich and vibrant place for wildlife and people.

The Group holds monthly meetings on the first Monday of the month at 18:00 at the Lugger Inn in Penzance. Everyone is welcome to attend. The Group also holds talks throughout the winter, and outdoor events (rockpooling, snorkelling, silent disco beach cleans) open to all ages and abilities. To find out more email mountsbaymarine@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page @MountsBayMarineGroup.

Mounts Bay Marine Conservation Zone

Mounts Bay was designated a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in 2016 as part of England’s marine protected area (MPA) network.

Key points of interest for us are:

Giant Goby – a fish which lives in rock pools and is a rare find in Britain.

Seagrass beds – help stabilise sediments, provide a food source for water birds, and shelter and nursery areas for a range of species such as cuttlefish, sea trout and other commercially caught shellfish and fish species.

Stalked jellyfish – found on most types of seaweeds and seagrasses, but prefer to attach to the leaf-like fronds of kelp plants.

Historical

Use of the coastline

The eastern side of Mounts Bay looks unused to us today but up to the immediate post second world war period must have been highly active for fishing, import and export of goods and of course smuggling. There are several areas that look like they have been cleared to draw boats up the shore such as: Stackhouse Cove, Basore Point, Trenow Cove (Boat Cove).

Prussia Cove has a reputation for smuggling. There is an 18th century autobiography, The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler by Captain Harry Carter which details his smuggling and privateering adventures and eventual conversion to Methodism between 1749 and 1809.

Stackhouse Cove has a special interest. Above the cove is Acton Castle, which was built by Admiral John Stackhouse in 1775 as a base from which to study seaweeds. To encourage his wife, Suzanna, to accompany him he cut a bath in the cove, next to the slipway, where she could relax {Perranuthnoe Parish An Illustrated Historical Guide (can be bought in Perranuthnoe Church) }.

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