STUDLAND residents have hit back over claims boats anchoring in its bay are damaging seahorse habitats.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the Seahorse Trust and Crown Estates have commissioned a survey to gather evidence about the problem.

It will see a voluntary no-anchor zone established in the coming weeks.

The trust says mooring boats ruin eelgrass where seahorses live.

But some locals say boats cause only a small amount of damage compared to nature itself.

Villager Nick Warner said: “The storms in the winter wring out the eelgrass and land it on the beach.

“The eelgrass around the moorings in the bay is the best eelgrass because they keep the trawlers away.”

Tim Lightbown, landlord at the Bankes Arms Inn, added: “The more publicity this gets, the more in July and August you will see little kids in the bay with nets and boats trying to catch them. It will wipe them (seahorses) out.”

Conservationist Steve Trewhella, who is a voluntary diver for the trust, said seagrass naturally died back in winter and was washed up on beaches, but its roots stayed in place.

He said anchors caused a “huge amount” of damage.

Studland parish council chairman, Sara Brown, said residents felt they had not been involved.

But Simon Cripps, chairman of the Studland Seagrass and Seahorse Study Group, said: “Only about two weeks ago we had a meeting of the group and it’s got a least two representatives from the parish council and a number of residents.”

Neil Garrick-Maidment, director of the Seahorse Trust, added: “A lot of people in Studland are supportive of what’s going on down there.”

The trust has also denied that it is planning to “name and shame” boat owners during the survey, as villagers claim.

Steve said he was in the process of videoing, photographing and mapping the damage with GPS.