hello I am thrilled to introduce you to the 2 Bay voluntary marine conservation area or vmca which is slightly less of a mouthful and this is the area we are covering 6,000 hectares between pentire point and tinal head which is huge and very much thanks to Coral National Landscapes and the National Trust we will also be doing conservation work on land which is really exciting that's what we look like looking over from Port Quinn towards tintagel and that's a more of a close-up of tintagel head thrusting into the Atlantic we have to mention the seaweed
Farms um briefly the ones here in in Port Quinn and also in Port Isaac um because without these Marine development applications the vmca wouldn't exist and I really believe that the community has been advocating for the conservation of the two Bay uh area since the uh applications came to light in February 2024 just because the of the the ruinous nature of these um applications and this is a bit of a favorite quote from Ed mcmah from the conservation fund the best places to live work and visit are those places that are willing to uphold their
standards in the face of pressure to allow lowest common denominated development successful communities understand that when they say no to development that is contrary to the long-term health of their Community they will almost always get better development in its place now the two Bay the MCA was conceived as as a way to reconnect the community with the sea more positively and to be the better development from that quote but it's really it's really important to emphasize that the 2bas vmca is is otherwise just completely unrelated to the campaign and stands uh stands apart from it
there's been a shift in our focus a little bit from um when we first constituted the uh the charity the two based trust that uh manages the vmca and that is a focus on physical and mental health and well-being when I wrote a paper on the impact of Nearshore development on Coastal communities mental health and well-being it became obvious that any conservation activities we undertake with the vmca would have a tangible and and um positive effect on on any participants so um that has made us Focus a little more on this uh element because the
the conservation will always be the beneficiary of of any of the work we do be using the ethos of green social prescribing or blue social prescribing perhaps we should call it um means that that there' be a benefit for for both the public and the environment and it's worth mentioning that we will our volunteers and our trustees and anybody who who who wants to help out will be trained in Mental Health First Aid so that they can offer support and guidance um to those suffering mental ill health anxiety stress and social isolation which is a
big thing um for our communities and that that training is is very much thanks to pent Tre who are who are offering that at a at a reduced rate um for which we're extremely grateful so these are some of our missions conservation on land and at sea education which is uh hugely important for us mental health and well-being as I mentioned physical health which is um kind of the byproduct of what we'll we'll be doing Wildlife disturbance which is a huge problem around the coast but but um here in PN and port at Bays um
it's a big deal with um quite a lot of pressures with tourist some tourist boats and uh and the general public so we'll be working on on that ocean plastic recycling is something we'll be targeting early on as much as possible and trying to support local small boat Fisheries in um in by finding Innovative and practical solutions to uh ghost gear and um and to dealing with broken and and um end of life uh pots and uh and um other equipment so we're going to we're going to work with them to to find a solution
to that which would be great um and collaboration and engagement without which which we would um just be uh screaming into the wind so thank you to everybody who has has guided and helped us and taken part so far there's a lot more to come these are the kind of activities we'll be doing um we're really looking forward to actioning some of these there are some people like um Michael trul love who is a fantastic forager uh who doesn't know how involved he's about to become but I will be um informing him shortly because that's
going to be a great thing to take part in the 2based trust is the the charity that we set up to manage the VC vmca and our Constitution states that we are there to enhance the education of the public in the conservation protection and Improvement of the physical and natural environment including Marine wildlife and the principles and practices of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation and to that we will have to at some point add um uh something about the the mental health and and well-being um focus but um we're going to carry on with it
so regardless obviously and um that's our three-word statements mission statement Community collaboration conservation I and I I think Community plus collaboration equals conservation perhaps it would be a better way of um setting that out U but the message is the same so this is our structure kind of vaguely um it's all about the community and the community is in charge and we will learn and and shift and change with their guidance um the vmca is the is the beneficiary the environment and and the public and the community and the trustees are the conduit really and
within that structure we have a a very large um steering committee of local stakeholders and that includes small boat Fisheries the tourist boats the harbor Masters um and and many many others who have a um have skin in the game in that area and so we're really grateful for their guidance and we will make sure that no decision is made without their agreement um or involvement so that's kind of how we um how we look so we've got part this is sort of out of dat by every minute this this statement is out ofd because
we have so many people coming on board and collaborating uh with us and we are we're thrilled with with all the opportunities that uh that are coming our way or the coming to the community uh ultimately um and particularly more recently with coral mind and pent Tre um talking about future projects and collaborations um where we can um which will be fantastic this is a big thing this is our Marine Center site at trevathan Farm shop and restaurant in cend Delian and and the Simmons family have invited us welcomed us onto their land to construct
a a community Hub um and it's going to be crucial to everything that we do will be the jumping off point the meeting point really for all of our conservation work at the coast but we've got so much we'll be doing around the uh around the Marine Center um including all the gardening um improving native planting and biodiversity around that area and um and so we're we're really um we're really thrilled because without this I I think it would be hard because we're such a huge area I think it would be hard to to function
effectively but having a focal point will mean that people can come to us at any time and we'll try and man it as much as I know that volunteering is is often a problem but we've got such a huge catchment that uh I think we'll find plenty of people to come and sit in a nice warm building at trathan and um and be there to welcome any any guests and uh answer any questions all of you are are um familiar with with our Wildlife but I just wanted to um share a few images there's her
wonderful gray seals um these are all taken from Port Quinn and Pa Isaac these are the gills on mes Island um and there's hundreds and hundreds of them it it's some someone's job um to count them from a photograph not not live necessarily but I think Adrien Langdon who was on the survey boats um did count them live and so I thought I might send him this image and ask him to count these for me um for our data so here is our our friend the Herring G um feeding um in his natural habitat his
her natural habitat I love this photo of her this is a female Seabass who was uh stranded uh as the tide went out and she was released shortly after that there are some Surfers that is the most fantastic shop I love that um and this uh guy was pulled out the seat by Michael true love um and is just enormous and was then um very carefully placed back where he was found having been weighed and uh and measured I'm going to leave this to play this is um a minky whale in P Quinn Bay [Music]
[Music] [Music] absolutely extraordinary stunning and um and the this is Port Bay also our our common dolphins [Music] we've had the most incredible amount of support from across Cornwall and I just wanted to highlight a couple of of messages that we had and this one's from Sue say from the seal research trust not the seal trust as it says there the seal research trust obviously and Sue says that the two Bay trust has aspirations to engage the Next Generation and their families who will be most affected by climate change and the multiplicity of other issues
faced by humans Marine habitats and species this is vital for community and organizational resilience absolutely right and that is um what we will be focusing on and this is from John Stewart general manager of the north Coral National Trust um and John says that one of the aims of the trust is to engage schools local communities visitors and particularly families who have less access to Wild Spaces in their environment Coastal projects in a county like cormal are very valuable and we can really see this proposal engaging locals and visitors alike to the benefit of their
and the environment's well-being absolutely so that's connection and reconnection with the sea for for for the community is very much a a focus for us and we would be nowhere without the help of C Changers CCF and the listed charitable trust who have funded our launch um basically and so we just would be shouting into the wind without them so uh we're enormously grateful and and also to the other local businesses who who aren't in a position to be able to help us financially but are given their time and resources um without sort of question
or limit um and we' really want to thank trathan particularly this is the briefest of please you we we those projects we've got in the pipeline are just huge and numerous and we do need more funding um but if there if anyone has any advice on that um please get in contact with Mark mark2 bay.org or contact us through the website we'd be grateful for any guidance thank you so much um please use this QR code to um to check out the website which is still in construction but it basically functions um and we'll be
building on on what's there as we go along we've we've got more um future events that we're just getting dates for and then we'll we'll put those on um and and also if you would if you would like to to volunteer or if you'd like to volunteer your advice then then feel free to put it down and we welcome any criticism as well as support because we want to try and get this right Thank you so much for for watching this uh presentation and please as I say do get in contact if you have any
questions or guidance thank you so much
