Gwennap Head identified steamships were wrecked, stranded or sank in the area. There have been none since 1923. The navigation markers feature as "the Cones of Runnel" in Hammond Innes's 1940 thriller "The Trojan Horse". Gwennap Head is part of the Porthgwarra to Pordenack Point Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) designated for its vegetation of waved maritime heath, and for being of considerable ornithological interest; especially for passage migrants. It is renowned for its relative abundance of passing marine bird species with many common species such as northern gannet ("Morus bassanus"), Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), common guillemot, ("Uria aalge"), razorbill ("Alca
Arripis commensal relationship between the Australian salmon and the birds is noted to be especially strong in such species as the white-fronted tern, ("Sterna striata"), fluttering shearwater, ("Puffinus gavia"), and Buller's shearwater, ("Puffinus bulleri"). The baitfish made available by the Australian salmon's herding behaviour may also be important to the reproductive success of winter-nesting birds; the decline of the Australians salmon stocks has evoked concern for these bird species, some of which – such as the fairy tern, ("Sterna nereis") – are endangered Aside from seabirds, the Australian salmon are also important in the diets of cetaceans, such as killer whales