Breadcrumbs
North East Undersea Landscape
The undersea landscapes of the North East stretch from the sandy mouth of the Humber to the Scottish border. Special to this part of the seas are the underwater caves and chalk pillars off Flamborough Head; the great Rocky Reef, which stretches from the Farnes to Newcastle, with its blue wolf fish; and the sandhills of the Dogger bank, rich in sand eels, which are as tall as Nelson’s Column. Occasionally orcas (killer whales) come to hunt the seals that haunt the reef’s kelp forests.
The distinctive landscape features of this undersea region include:
- The great North Eastern rocky reef stretching along the Northumberland coast for miles. Home to the pretty cuckoo wrasse, the fearsome looking wolf fish, deeplet sea anemones, light bulb sea squirts, edible sea urchins, bottle brush hydroids and much more sealife.
- An ancient landscape of submerged villages - some from Roman times.
- The underwater gullies, cliffs and sea caves around the Farne Islands where kelp forests provide a feeding ground for the playful grey seal.
- Huge expanses of undersea sand hills and plains which provide a hunting ground for thornback rays, diving seabirds, porpoises and even whales that chase the millions of sand eels which live in this landscape.
- Huge beds of brittlestars, a kind of starfish, which lie in dense numbers on the gravelly seabed waving their fragile arms in the air to catch food.
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Panorama
Click the numbers on the image below to find out more about the diverse range of species and habitats.
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