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Audio clip 7 available here on audio player.
As the Harbour Master of the Exe Estuary, Grahame Forshaw is always happy to see both people and wildlife spending time in and on the water. He passionately believes the estuary is big enough to be shared by people and nature. Born in the North of England, Grahame was first introduced to the Exe when he journeyed southward to join the Royal Marines Centre in 1975. In this recording, Grahame reflects on how the need to accommodate natural, commercial, and leisure use has changed in the harbour over the years.
This trail marker is situated at the end of Camperdown Terrace on the Exe Harbour Master’s office.
What 3 Words: ///jiffy.lighters.breached
Grahame: It’s the diversity. The diversity of wildlife. The diversity of users. It’s one of those idiosyncratic things. It can be quite frustrating to have so many diverse user groups, but it can also be a good thing because it’s great to see. One of the pluses of my job is, I get to see so many people having a really good time on the water, which I think is fantastic. I believe that the Exe, although it’s a wildlife refuge area as well, and two defined refuge areas, I believe that the Exe is big enough for them and us. For wildlife, and people. Recreational users, professional commercial users, kite surfers, windsurfers, kayakers, paddle boarders, dingy sailors, yachtsmen, power boaters, motor cruisers, commercial fishermen, day-trip skippers, ferries. Any vessel you could name is on the water in the Exe. Again, one of the things that I’ve seen over the years, it’s the expansion of users of the river. For example, there’s now the Cycleway that goes all the way around both sides. So 18 miles of the Cycleway connected by either the Road Bridge towards Exeter or the small ferry that runs across the Exe at Topsham. Then you’ve got the other ferry at Starcross to Dawlish, from Starcross to Exmouth. You can jump on a bike and do the whole trip, which is a really good thing, fun thing to do. And I have done it a number of times.
I think one of the things that I’m conscious of is rising sea levels. You can spot it already on some of the high spring tides that we’ve had, you think, crikey, it’s not going to take much until places start getting flooded. Already we’ve been thinking in this building, about what we’re going to do in a few years when the pier at the Turf, for example, becomes underwater or covered, overtopped. And that overtopping, it’s a real concern and we’re starting to plan now about what we’re going to do about it and putting higher defences in.
I think it’s worth making the point that the Exe is a whacking great big piece of water and it’s pretty resilient I think. I think, as I mentioned before, lots of diverse user groups on the water as well as a lot of nature using the water. It seems to be handling it just fine. It will outlive us all, it will continue to be the river. I think it’s in pretty good shape. Yes all right, you could say it’s shallow or it might be muddy or whatever, but it gives people a great sense of well-being, I think the water and the edges. I think it will be that for everybody for a long period of time.
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