The waters off the coast of NW England support an important fishery
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Open Sea Water Column
In terms of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan this habitat covers those waters beyond the limit of coastal influence. However, in the Irish Sea off NW England there is probably no area of sea truly free of coastal influence due to the large input of estuarine water and shallow nature of the sea.
For simplicity all open (non-estuarine) waters are covered in this habitat statement, including those subject to coastal influence. Communities directly associated with the seabed are covered in the Sub-tidal rock of theopen coast and Sub-tidal sediment of the open coast habitat statements.
Sea mammals are not particularly common off NW England, but grey seals Halichoerus grypus are regularly present around the Dee estuary and occasional elsewhere, while harbour porpoise** Phocoena phocoena and bottlenose dolphin** Tursiops truncatus are frequent along the whole coast.
Birds of the open sea include terns* Sterna spp., scoters* Melanitta spp., guillemot Uria aalge, puffin* Fratercula arctica and manx shearwater* Puffinus puffinus.
Current Status
The open sea water column off NW England is of regional importance. Species marked ** are UK Priority species: those marked * are UK Species of Conservation Concern.
For further information please see the document for download on this page.
