Title: Environmental monitoring of the Fal Estuary to support the Fal Swan study : final draft report
Author: Rob Hocking
Document Type: Monograph
Annotation: EA additional title info: December 1997
Abstract:
The River Fal Estuary is situated on the south coast of Cornwall. With the estuary, its many tidal creeks contain a wide range of wildlife habitats, some of which are of national and international importance. Since the autumn of 1992, numbers of the mute swan population within the Fal estuary have been sighted, either dead or behaving unnaturally. Between 1993 and 1995 at least fifty-four dead or dying swans were collected between Restronguet Creek and Falmouth docks. The post mortem examinations showed that the tissues from the swans in the Fal estuary contained high concentrations of metals, in particular zinc. Levels of zinc found in the swan's pancreas were between fifteen and thirty times greater than that of the swans found elsewhere. The estuary and its inputs have been affected over the last two centuries by three main industries: China clay abstraction; Falmouth docks and marinas which repair and berth pleasure craft and ocean going merchant vessels; the mining industry for metals. Together with the run off from the many spoil heaps in the Camon River catchment there are several adits which discharge water from abandoned mines into the Camon River. These discharges are acidic and contain high concentrations of dissolved metals. The objective of this report is to determine metal and organotin concentrations in the sediments and biota within the Fal estuary and Restronguet Creek.
Publisher: Environment Agency
Publication Date: 1997
Publication Place: Bodmin
Subject Keywords: Estuaries; Birds; Heavy metals; Lead; Zinc; Mine spoil; Runoff
Geographic Keywords: EA South West; West Cornwall and the Fal catchment
Taxonomic Keywords: Cygnus olor
Extent: n.p. [27]
Permalink: http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:1551
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