This is why a Christmas tree with fairy lights is floating on a pontoon at Sunderland Marina

The pioneering project, which includes a Christmas tree complete with fairy lights, has already “attracted a lot of interest within the community” since it was unveiled earlier this month.

The £10,000 floating pontoon was funded by the Environment Agency and installed by ecological technology company Biomatrix.

It forms part of the wider Wear Estuary Partnership project to improve water quality and restore lost coastal habitat to the River Wear estuary.

Zahra Ravenscroft, senior marine environmental monitoring officer with the agency, said: “We are excited to work with partners in the Wear catchment, including Groundwork and Sunderland Marina, to create this innovative project to restore lost intertidal habitats to our estuarine and coastal waters.

“Over the coming months we’ll be monitoring the ecosystem to help assess the benefits that can be made from creating innovative ecological enhancements in urban estuaries such as the Wear.

“We love the fun festive addition of the Scots Pine resplendent with fairy lights, which has attracted a lot of interest within the community, and helped to promote the project and its aims to them.”

The pontoon includes a mix of saltmarsh species planted over a permeable membrane.

The plants will provide biodiversity improvements both above and below the water.

Biomatrix managing director Galen Fulford added: “Estuaries, with their ports and docks, are some of the most built-up and modified areas with heavily impacted ecosystems.

"By establishing this pioneering multi-level pontoon we’re able to provide pockets of biodiversity and a habitat refuge for critical species.”

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