Breadcrumbs
North West Undersea Landscape
In the North West off the coast between Barrow and Fleetwood (in the entrance to Morecambe Bay) there is a little-known but remarkable deep-sea pit clothed in dahlia anemones and the plant-like colonial animal ‘seabeard’: the Lune Deep. The Lune Deep was formed during the last Ice Age when a huge piece of glacier was forced down into the seabed. In the North West undersea landscape can be found peacock worms, cockles, sea pens, urchins, herring, plaice, cod, dolphins, and even basking sharks.
This area is home to:
- Dolphins, basking sharks and harbour porpoises as well as herring, plaice and cod.
- Sea Pen gardens – an underwater landscape dotted with beautiful, shimmering sea pens. These polyps are delicate, plant-like creatures which grow up to 60 cm tall and glow softly in the darkness.
- Purple sea urchins – covered in short fur-like spines and looking rather like sea-going hedgehogs – rove among the clams far out into the Irish sea west of Rhyl.
- Lune Deep – a remarkable deep sea pit in the entrance to Morecambe Bay. Long and thin, the mysterious Lune Deep was formed during the last Ice Age when a huge piece of glacier was forced down into the seabed.
- Common scoter – up to 16,000 of these unusual sea ducks are found in Liverpool Bay in winter.
- Sea grape sea squirts which shelter beneath the canopy of algae on the sandstone rocks at St Bees in Cumbria.
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Panorama
Click the numbers on the image below to find out more about the diverse range of species and habitats.
1. Lake District
Lake District fells and coast in the distance. [back to panorama]
2. Common scoter
Up to 16,000 of these unusual sea ducks are found in Liverpool Bay in the winter. They dive down to feed on the small clams and urchins living on the seabed. [back to panorama]
3. Honeycomb reef – a living reef formed by worms
The honeycomb reef worm glues together sand particles into a tube around itself. A mass of such tubes stick to one another to form a honeycomb. Honeycomb reefs are usually found on rocky areas and can look like giant cauliflowers in shape.
Over time, seaweeds including the dulse, red algae and sea lettuce colonise the reefs, and animals including barnacles, dogwhelks, winkles and the splendidly named ‘discordant mussel’ move in. Blennies and common shore crabs live in crevices within the reefs. [back to panorama]
4. Mackerel shoal
Seasonal shoals of pelagic (i.e. sea going, surface living) fish such as mackerel, herring and sprat make long journeys between this and adjacent sea areas. They provide a vital food resource for birds such as terns and guillemots. These waters support important commercial fisheries, with several species of fish feeding directly on plankton. [back to panorama]
5. Bottlenose dolphins – individuals or large pods may be seen
These large dolphins are up to 4 m long, with a grey back that fades to white on the underside and a dark stripe from eye to flipper.
Off the coast of Cumbria and Lancashire is a permanent ‘sea front’ where slow gentle tides closer to the coast meet the faster tides of the deeper Irish Sea. The sea front separates salty more oceanic water from the less salty inshore water, and creates ideal conditions for a variety of sealife. It attracts dolphins and harbour porpoises, which hunt shoals of herring. [back to panorama]
6. Sea pen gardens – delicate plant-like colonies of tiny creatures
Surrounding the sea urchin ranges, the underwater landscape is dotted with beautiful shimmering sea pens. Growing up to 60 cms tall, these delicate plant-like creatures are actually colonies of ‘polyps’, extending from a central stem. White or yellow in colour they glow softly in the darkness, and thrive in the sheltered conditions and soft seabed in this part of the Irish Sea. [back to panorama]
7. Mermaid’s glove
The mermaid’s glove sponge is pale brown in colour, but can also be yellowish, greenish, rose or purple. It looks rather like a stalked tree and is usually about 30 cm tall with a velvety surface. The sponge is robust but very flexible. [back to panorama]
8. Crabs such as the 'runner'or 'square' crab and great spider crabs
The unusual looking, long-legged, deep-sea crab, known as the runner or square or box crab, lives in the sea pen gardens. The great spider crab is reddish-brown with a pear-shaped shell that may be encrusted with other invertebrates. [back to panorama]
9. Harbour porpoise – a shy cousin of the dolphin
This small cetacean can grow up to 2 m in length. It has a blunt short-beaked head and is generally dark grey on the back and white on the belly. It hunts shoals of herring and sometimes mackerel. [back to panorama]
10. Thornback ray hunting for shrimps, crabs and small fish
Thornback rays search out the many shrimps, worms and crabs that live in the sand. They often move closer inshore during winter and spring. The body of the ray is covered with coarse prickles as well as large, backward-pointing thorns (called bucklers), each of which has a thick button-like base. [back to panorama]
11. Sea urchin ranges
Lying further out in deeper water on muddy and gravelly beds extending from St Bees in the north to Barrow in the south are the ‘sea urchin ranges’. Here live many sea urchins – including the spectacularly coloured purple heart urchins - Dublin Bay prawns (scampi), and brittlestars capable of burrowing into the muddy bottom to escape feeding fish. [back to panorama]
12. Sandstone rocks covered in seaweeds, sponges and anemones
One of the few truly rocky parts of this coast is at St Bees in Cumbria where hard sandstone runs into the sea. Here boulders are covered in a canopy of red seaweeds such as ‘irish moss’, cockscomb and red rags and, sheltering beneath the canopy of algae, is an abundance of sea-grape sea-squirts.
Broad-clawed, long-clawed and edible crabs are also found here, along with the hairy sea mat and opaque sea squirts. Not far away at Nethertown, the rocks are home to sponges including the breadcrumb sponge, dead men’s fingers, and beadlet, orange and dahlia anemones. [back to panorama]
13. Salmon migrating
Migrating salmon pass through the deep sea pit of the Lune Deep on their way to the River Lune in the Lake District. [back to panorama]
14. Lune Deep – a mysterious long, thin chasm 86m deep
In the entrance to Morecambe Bay lies a little-known and remarkable deep sea pit - the Lune Deep. Long and thin, swept by tides running at up to one metre a second, this mysterious pit was formed during the last Ice Age when a huge piece of glacier was forced down into the seabed.
From mud, the sides of the Deep give way to boulders, cobbles and pebbles, as they slope steeply to the seabed. On the upper slopes, there are colonies of seaweed-like colonial animals, ‘sea beard’, and also dahlia and burrowing anemones.
Further down lives the distinctive peacock worm and the channel is covered in a dense, furry ‘turf’ made up of tiny living marine creatures. Larger fish such as the spurdog, which is rather like a giant dogfish, cruise by here. [back to panorama]
15. Bib – a fish related to the cod
These distinctive fish – also known as pouting - are about 25 cm long and a deep coppery colour with 3 or 4 vertical pale bands. [back to panorama]
16. Wreck of the SS Liverpool
Lying in 38m of water some 18 nautical miles south-east of the Isle of Man, and about 40 nautical miles north of Anglesey, the steamship Liverpool is one of the less accessible wrecks for divers. She was sunk by a U-boat mine in 1916. The iron propeller is still in place and the rudder is nearby. Both are covered in a mixture of daisy and plumose anemones, as well as abundant sponges, and surrounded by pouting. [back to panorama]
17. Brittlestar beds
Brittlestars are fragile starfish. They bury their bodies in the muddy bottom to escape feeding fish and wave their arms in the water to catch food. [back to panorama]
18. Plaice – a flatfish that lives on the sandy seabed
Plaice is one of about eight species of commercially important fish which spawn and grow in the shallow waters and estuaries off the Cumbrian coast. Plaice are oval in shape and right-eyed (if the fish is visualised swimming upright, then both the eyes are on the right side of the body). The upper side is generally brown with numerous, conspicuous orange or red spots. [back to panorama]
19. Sea beard
Sea beard is found attached to shells and stones on sandy bottoms. It looks like orangey seaweed but is actually colonies of tiny animals. It consists of up to 50 thick, stiff, erect, stems which grow to 25 cm tall from a fibrous mass of roots. Each stem bears a bundle of 6-10 whorled side branches. [back to panorama]
20. Spurdog
This small shark, which is rather like a giant dogfish, cruises in the Lune Deep at the entrance to Morecambe Bay. The female gives birth to live ‘pups’ after 2 years gestation. [back to panorama]
21. Dublin Bay prawns - also known as scampi - burrow in the soft seabed
Dublin Bay prawns are found in large numbers in the sea urchin ranges. Pale orange in colour, they live in shallow burrows. [back to panorama]