08/06/2026
🌊 World Ocean Day 🌊
The sea has shaped Charlestown for over 200 years.
It carried copper, china clay and cargo ships around the world. It brought livelihoods, stories and connections to distant shores. Today, it continues to shape our harbour in ways both visible and hidden.
Just beyond the harbour lies one of the UK's largest known seagrass meadows and the largest known subtidal seagrass bed in Cornwall. Alongside ancient maerl beds - a slow-growing, coral-like seaweed that can take thousands of years to form - these remarkable underwater habitats provide shelter for marine life, help improve water quality and store significant amounts of carbon.
We're excited to be exploring opportunities to work with through the Tor to Shore programme, which aims to connect nature recovery from Helman Tor to the waters of St Austell Bay. By recognising the connections between our landscape, rivers and sea, the project seeks to protect and restore the habitats that make this coastline so special.
As a working historic harbour, we believe preserving maritime heritage and protecting the marine environment go hand in hand. The stories of Charlestown don't end at the water's edge - they're written beneath the waves too.
Happy World Ocean Day. 🌊
MaritimeHeritage