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Category Archives: Marine Conservation Zone
Snippet 16: A beautiful ‘flower’ on the Allonby shore
Tubularia: its delicate tentacles wafting in the current, its stalks swaying gently, its body glowing crimson-red despite the sediment-laden tide. It’s not a plant, it’s not a sea-weed: it’s an animal which is related to sea-anemones and jellyfish, and a … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Snippets
Tagged reproduction
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The Highly Protected Marine Area of Allonby Bay: the story so far…
‘We should be excited that Allonby is the first inshore HPMA in England! It’s something to celebrate.’ Indeed it is! It was a small get-together – only five of us had come along – to discuss how much we knew … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm
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Neaps and Springs: high highs, low highs, and high or low lows.
During the biggest Spring tides of the year, often in September, the height of the water in the Solway Firth might change by almost 10 metres – that’s nearly 33 feet – during the course of one tidal cycle. And … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, rowing, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Spring & Neap Tides, tidelines
Tagged guided walks, sea-level changes, skiff, tideline
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The acronyms’ stories: imagine.
‘Alphabet soup’: AONB, EMS, MPA, MCZ, NNR, SAC, SPA, SSSI – how many more of these acronyms for conservation designations can you recall? Do you know what they mean? (If you don’t – and not many people do – you … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, mud-shrimps, peat, bogs and moors, saltmarshes, wetlands
Tagged acronyms, conservation designations
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SACs, SPAs, SSSIs on the Solway Firth: Learning to love the acronyms
“Think of [the list] as not so much an inventory as a catalogue leading to compelling and interacting stories.” [1] Conservation designations: their borders aren’t marked by posts or buoys, but they are marked by lines on maps, and by … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, mudflats, peat, bogs and moors, saltmarshes, wetlands
Tagged acronym soup, acronyms, Marine Conservation Zone, Ramsar site
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Time-warps and gnomons
It was a fine bright morning, there was still a sprinkling of snow on the fells, but Spring was clearly on its way; I’d spent too much time at my desk writing and longed for the changed perspective of the … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, tidelines
Tagged coastal walking, volunteers
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Snippets 11: big moon, big tides, at Allonby Bay
On Monday night the full moon, its face very slightly squashed, shone down on a stormy Solway Firth. The brown silt-laden waves pounded ashore and shortly after midnight the incoming tide that was battering the sea-defences at Dubmill Point reached … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Snippets, Spring & Neap Tides
Tagged Sabellaria
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Allonby Bay MCZ: a ‘slimy dangerous place?’
Allonby Bay, on Cumbria’s Solway coast, recently became a Marine Conservation Zone; there are now 50 MCZs in English and ‘non-devolved’ waters and proposals for more are under consideration. Most people, probably, neither know nor would they care. Here are … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged Allonby Bay, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Solway, undersea
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Seeing the sea-bed
‘The ground’s too rough – the shrimp-boats avoid it like the plague, it does too much damage to their nets’, says David Dobson, now retired from the NW-Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority at Whitehaven, talking about the sea-bed in Allonby … Continue reading
Posted in artificial reefs, Marine Conservation Zone, renewable energy, tide & wind, sand, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged artificial reef, current speeds, drop-down video, Marine Conservation Zone, octopus's garden, offshore wind-farms, scour pits, turbine foundations
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Solway Shore-walker 