Blue Mussel Bed (Credit George Stoyle)
Blue mussels group together using sticky ‘beards’ of byssus threads to form extensive beds.
In sandy-muddy areas like the Silver Pit mussels provide a hard substrate that supports many other creatures.
Located approximately 26km from Theddlethorpe off the Lincolnshire coast, this site incorporates the Inner Silver Pit glacial tunnel valley. Sloping from 11 - 98 metres the deep canyon walls here descend into a 50km long glacial tunnel.
The seafloor consists of mixed sediments and ross worm reef which in addition to blue mussel beds supports an abundance of marine wildlife, including brittlestars, sea squirts, hydroids, buried polychaete worms and bivalve molluscs. The deepest areas are carpeted in common and serpent’s table brittlestars. Lemon and dover sole, sprat, whiting, cod, plaice and herring all spawn here and attract feeding white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and harbour porpoises.
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 data as soon as possible and to consider designation of this site in a future tranche:
Although Defra have indicated that there is enough evidence to support designation of the site for two of the habitats and species recommended by stakeholders, further evidence is required for the presence and extent of subtidal sand and gravels within the site before it will be considered for designation. This site contains rare and fragile rossworm reef and also contains an important glacial feature- the Inner Silver Pit. It also provides foraging grounds for seabirds including the common guillemot and the Atlantic puffin.
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 for designation in a future tranche.
Other nearby MCZs
Wash Approach Lincs Belt Holderness Offshore
Location map
Silver Pit 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 |
|---|---|
| Silver Pit.pdf | 223.98 KB |