Cumbria Coast is one of England's Marine Conservation Zones. It was designated in 2013 and is one of a number of such zones off the coast of Cumberland and Furness.
The MCZ covers the stretch of sea from Whitehaven down to the mouth of the Ravenglass Estuary. [1] It includes the sea off Sellafield (the nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear decommissioning site), and off St Bees Head.
The MCZ protects underwater habitats and animals such as the honeycomb worm.
St Bees Head, where there is an RSPB reserve, is an important breeding site for sea birds.
There was concern that the MCZ as originally designated did not protect enough of the foraging grounds of sea birds. [2] In 2019 an addition was agreed. [3]
At the time Cumbria Coast was designated the other MCZs on the Cumbrian coast were:
The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland in Northern Europe, with a population of almost 85,000. It is a British Crown dependency. It has a small islet, the Calf of Man, to its south. It is located at 54°15′N4°30′W.
The Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very near to the firth. The firth comprises part of the Irish Sea.
Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It lies by road 38 miles (61 km) south-west of Carlisle and 45 miles (72 km) to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It was the administrative seat of the former Borough of Copeland, and has a town council for the parish of Whitehaven. The population of the town was 23,986 at the 2011 census.
Mount's Bay is a bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall, England, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In the north of the bay, near Marazion, is St Michael's Mount; the origin of name of the bay. In summer, it is a generally benign natural harbour. However, in winter, onshore gales present maritime risks, particularly for sailing ships. There are more than 150 known wrecks from the nineteenth century in the area. The eastern side of the bay centred around Marazion and St Michael's Mount was designated as a Marine Conservation Zone in January 2016.
St Bees is a coastal village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Copeland district of Cumbria, England, on the Irish Sea.
Haig Colliery Mining Museum was a visitor attraction in Kells, on the site of Cumbria's last deep coal mine on the cliffs above Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. It closed in January 2016 due to insolvency.
St Bees railway station is a railway station serving the village of St Bees in Cumbria, England. It is on the Cumbrian Coast line, which runs between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
The Cumbria Coastal Way (CCW) is a long-distance footpath in Cumbria in northern England, following the coast from Silverdale, just over the Lancashire border, to just north of the Anglo-Scottish border. It is now part of the England Coast Path.
St Bees Head is a headland on the North West coast of the English county of Cumbria and is named after the nearby village of St Bees.
The River Ehen is a river in Cumbria, England.
St Bees Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on St Bees Head near the village of St Bees in Cumbria, England. The cliff-top light is the highest in England at 102 m (335 ft) above sea level.
South Walney is one of two nature reserves on Walney Island, England. The nature reserve has an area of 130 ha leased from Holker estates. It has been managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust since 1963. The reserve is notable for:
A Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) is a type of marine nature reserve in UK waters. They were established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) and are areas designated with the aim to protect nationally important, rare or threatened habitats and species. Approximately 20% of UK waters now have some protection although some conservation, fisherman and wildlife groups are concerned that there are no management plans for each zone.
Allonby Bay is a crescent-shaped bay of the Solway Firth on the north-western shore of Cumbria, England. The bay is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) across. Its northern point is at Dubmill, between the village of Mawbray and the hamlet of Salta, and its southern end is just to the north of Maryport, near the village of Crosscanonby. The B5300 coast road follows the shoreline of Allonby Bay, running between Silloth in the north and Maryport in the south.
West of Walney is a Marine Conservation Zone in the Irish Sea west of Walney Island, England. It was designated in 2016 to protect subtidal mud and sand habitats: at that time the MCZ was one of three off the coast of Cumbria, the others being Allonby Bay and Cumbria Coast. The area is 388km2, a similar size to the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. The depth range of the site is 15–33 metres.
The Cromer Shoal Chalk Beds are a chalk reef off the coast Norfolk in the United Kingdom, believed to be the largest chalk reef in Europe. Since January 2016, an area around it has been designated as a Marine Conservation Zone. Although the MCZ is named after chalk beds off Cromer the most dramatic features are off Sheringham. A chalk bedrock seabed actually extends under much of the Southern North Sea and is exposed underwater and at the shore - as veneers of sand and sediment move with sea action. The chalk is most notably exposed at the shore as rock pools at West Runton. They are home to more than 700 marine species, including a species of purple Hymedesmia sponge unique to the area first identified there in 2011.
St Bees Head RSPB Reserve at St Bees Head, Cumbria, England, is a coastal site which provides a home for thousands of seabirds under the care of the RSPB. The birds include kittiwakes, fulmars, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants, Atlantic puffins, shags and herring gulls. It is the only breeding place in England for black guillemots. The rock pipit, which breeds on rocky coasts, is known to breed in only one other site in Cumbria.
Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone is in the English Channel, between 3 miles (5 km) and 6 miles (10 km) off the West Sussex coast to the south of Littlehampton and Worthing. It covers an area of around 47 square kilometres (18 sq mi).
Blackwater, Crouch, Roach and Colne Estuaries is a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), located in Essex, England. It includes the Blackwater, Colne, Crouch and Roach estuaries as well as the coast between them. It extends from the mean high water mark to where the estuary mouths join the North Sea. With a total area of 284 square kilometres (110 sq mi), it the largest inshore MCZ in England.
The marine conservation zones in Yorkshire, were created in 2016 and 2019 after an extensive consultation, which drew criticism of the UK Government's plans which designated only 31 zones out of the projected 127 zones in 2013. An £8 million study recommended the 127 sites, of which, eight lay in and around the coast of Yorkshire.