West of Walney is a

Marine Conservation Zone A Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) is a type of marine nature reserve in UK waters. They were established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) and are areas designated with the aim to protect nationally important, rare or threatened habit ...

in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

west of

Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. It is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned b ...

, England. It was designated in 2016 to protect subtidal mud and sand habitats: at that time the MCZ was one of three off the coast of Cumbria, the others being

Allonby Bay Allonby Bay is a crescent-shaped bay of the Solway Firth on the north-western shore of Cumbria, England. The bay is across. Its northern point is at Dubmill, between the village of Mawbray and the hamlet of Salta, and its southern end is just t ...

and

Cumbria Coast Cumbria Coast is one of England's Marine Conservation Zones. It was designated in 2013, and is one of a number of such zones off the coast of Cumbria. The MCZ covers the stretch of sea from Whitehaven down to the mouth of the Ravenglass Estuary ...

. The area is 388km2, a similar size to the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

off the south coast of England. The depth range of the site is 15–33 metres. An unusual feature of the MCZ is that it is co-located with offshore wind turbines.While the tubines are referred to as "offshore" (not being on land), the MCZ is mainly in "onshore" (

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

) waters, defined as being within 12

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s of the coas

/ref> At the time of designation it was noted that it would be simpler to restrict fishing by

bottom trawling Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is towin ...

because this type of fishing is generally discouraged within windfarm developments. In 2019 a

bye-law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

prohibited bottom trawling from the majority of the site. Sustainable fishing for prawns using creels has been trialled.Fishing into the future.''Cumbrian Wildlife''. September 2019.

Fauna

Fauna of interest include

sea pen Sea pens are colonial marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea. There are 14 families within the order; 35 extant genera, and it is estimated that of 450 described species, around 200 are valid. Sea pens have a cosmo ...

References

{{coord, 54.044000, -3.522000, display=title Marine reserves of the United Kingdom Protected areas established in 2016

Fauna

See also

References