Fulmar (Credit George Stoyle)
Fulmar is one of the deepest recommended MCZs found within the northern North Sea.
Fulmar is located 224km offshore from the Northumberland coast and is the most northerly MCZ within the North Sea.
Reaching between 50 - 100 metres deep, it is also one of the deepest recommended MCZs found within the northern North Sea.
The seafloor consists mostly of sand and gravel with some patches of coarse sediment. This provides an ideal home for creatures to bury themselves, like the ocean quahog. This long lived bivalve mollusc is often preyed upon by North Sea cod.
Camouflaged against the surface of the seafloor, the undulate ray is a regular visitor. Fulmar, as its name suggests, is an important area for seabirds providing foraging grounds for northern fulmars and northern gannets.
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 additional evidence 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 the designation of the site for the subtidal coarse sediment, additional evidence is required to support designation of the site for three additional features recommended by stakeholders. Therefore the site is on hold at the moment, pending additional data. If designated, this site would contribute the largest area of subtidal sand out of all MCZs. There are also records of basking sharks and cetaceans within the site and of foraging seabirds, including common guillemot and black-legged kittiwake.
We need you to urge Defra to designate this site as soon as possible for those features that are deemed to have sufficient evidence and to commit to gathering additional data for designation of those remaining features to consider their designation in a future tranche.
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 |
|---|---|
| Fulmar.pdf | 219.27 KB |