Common brittlestar bed (Credit Paul Naylor)
Mud is particularly important habitat for a variety of marine species, including polychaete worms and brittlestars that in turn support the marine food web.
The mud found here supports a wealth of marine life.
North-West of Jones Bank is located 165km west of Land's End and supports important habitats, such as subtidal mud, which is indicative of these stable offshore areas where fine particles are able to settle.
This area is known to be an important foraging ground for seabirds during winter. Diving birds in particular will migrate to the sea during winter, including internationally important Great northern divers that move offshore from August until the early spring when they move back to their largely Icelandic breeding grounds.
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 consider this site as an urgent and high priority for designation in the future:
This site is on hold as Defra has indicated that there is not enough ecological evidence to support designation of this site at the moment. If designated, this site would protect the largest area of subtidal mud in any marine protected area. The habitats found within this site provide important nursery and spawning habitats for fish and potentially important habitat for seabirds. This site was also identified by Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee as being at high risk of damage and degradation due to pressures on the vulnerable habitats found within the site.
We need you to urge Defra to consider this site as an urgent and high priority for designation in the future. Defra commissioned some additional survey work into this site in 2012- this data has not been used as part of this consultation. We urge Defra to use these results to feed into future decisions about designation of this site as soon as possible.
Other nearby MCZs
Greater Haig Fras East of Jones Bank
Location map
North-West of Jones Bank recommended MCZ is located in the map below.
Contains UKHO Law of the Sea data. Crown copyright and database right and
contains Ordnance Survey Data Crown copyright and database 2012
Downloads
| Filename | File size |
|---|---|
| North-West of Jones Bank.pdf | 400.02 KB |