East Narrows

East Narrows is located on the east side (St Mawes side) of the Carrick Roads, the main river entrance to Falmouth and the River Fal.

Its approximately a 10 minute boat ride from Falmouth Harbour. This is one of the most local boat dives.

This dive site sits of the East / Starboard / Green buoy that marks the deep channel of the Carrick Roads. We drop onto the top side of the channel, approx 6m depending on tide. The steep slope into the middle of the channel leads us to a depth of 24-30m depending on tide.

This site is famous for being one of the largest Maerl beds in the world. Living maerl is a purple-pink hard seaweed that forms spiky underwater ‘carpets’ on the seabed, known as 'maerl beds’. As a type of 'coralline’ algae, maerl deposits lime in its cell walls as it grows, creating a hard, brittle skeleton.

Good buoyancy control is an absolute must at this dive site, as Maerl is very slow growing approx 1cm per year. Any damage to this important eco system could be catatrosphic.