White-beaked dolphins (Credit Martin Kitching)
Marine mammals, from harbour porpoise to leaping white-beaked dolphins are often spotted in Northumberland's waters.
Farnes East is one of the few sites within the North Sea to include mud habitats, important for delicate blonde and red sea pens.
Farnes East is located 11km offshore from the Berwickshire coast and within close proximity to the Farne Islands, making it an important foraging area for seabirds, such as guillemots and razorbills.
The seafloor reaches between 30 -100 metres in depth making the Farnes East one of the deepest patches of the North Sea. The seafloor comprises a mosaic of habitats, including rock, mixed and coarse sediment, sand, mud and patches of peat and clay. This is one of the few sites within the North Sea to include mud habitats, important for nephrops (langoustine) and delicate blonde and red sea pens. The glacial feature to the south, known as the Farn Deeps, is of particular importance for foraging and breeding white-beaked dolphins with regular sightings recorded.
This recommended Marine Conservation Zone is ON HOLD at the moment as Defra has indicated that there is not enough evidence to support designation.
We need you to urge Defra to commit to gathering the additional data required as soon as possible and to consider designation of this site in a future tranche:
Although Defra has indicated that there is enough evidence to support designation of the site for subtidal coarse sediment, but additional information is required for four additional habitats recommended by stakeholders.
This site is considered to be an important foraging area for grey seals and important for cetaceans all year round, with regular sightings including minke and humpback whales and the white beaked dolphin. You can see a video of a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust survey for this dolphin on this page. Northern gannet and northern fulmar are also seen foraging in this area. Defra have carried out additional survey work of this site in 2012 and this data has not been taken into account as part of this consultation.
We need you to urge Defra consider designation of this site as soon as possible for those features deemed to have sufficient evidence. Defra should use additional data gathered to consider designation of those additional features requiring more evidence in a future tranche.
White beaked dolphin survey in the Farnes East rMCZ
Contains UKHO Law of the Sea data. Crown copyright and database right and contains Ordnance Survey Data Crown copyright and database 2012
Other nearby MCZs
Downloads
| Filename | File size |
|---|---|
| Farnes East.pdf | 292.86 KB |