Environmentally friendly mooring trial extended
A trial for an environmentally friendly mooring system to protect marine life has been extended by the Ports of Jersey (PoJ).
Three mooring buoys were installed in St Catherine's Harbour on a temporary basis in 2023 using elastic cables instead of traditional metal chains, which can destroy beds of seagrass when moving with the tides.
PoJ said the system would be extended to the end of the year to allow more data to be collected.
Kevin McIlwee, founder of Jersey Marine Conservation, said the system was beneficial for the protection of seagrass.
"It is really important for juvenile fish species, crabs, and all those creatures that live in that sort of environment," he said.
He added seagrass had a "capacity to store an enormous amount of carbon... almost as much as all of the woodland that we have got in Jersey - so it is really, really important".
The PoJ said an extra year trialling the new buoys would give authorities a better understanding of how the systems were working.
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