St Austell Bay

St Austell Bay (Cornish: Baya Ti war Dreth)[1] is a bay on Cornwall's south coast which is bounded to the east by Gribbin Head and to the west by Black Head.

It lies southeast of the town of St Austell[2] and stretches along the coast from Charlestown in the north to Black Head in the south.

[3] In 2023, a 887-acre (359 ha) seagrass meadow, one of the largest in the UK, was discovered off the coast of St Austell Bay.

Divers which were sent in to examine the site recorded 56 species living there, which included short-snouted seahorses and broadnosed pipefish.

The divers also examined beds of maerl a little further out from the coast, where they found an additional 66 species, including the curled octopus and streaked gurnard.