Skomer Marine Conservation Zone //Marine Life in an Underwater Refuge
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Skomer Marine Conservation Zone //Marine life in an underwater refuge www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk What is the Skomer Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ)? Martin’s The seas around Skomer Island (a Haven National Nature Reserve itself) and the Skomer Coastguard Ferry Hut Departure Marloes peninsula became a Marine Point Conservation Zone (MCZ) in 2014. Before this the area had been a Marine Nature Reserve for 24 years and an Fisherman’s Lockley Cottage Lodge important study area for many years before that. Although the designation Deer Park may have changed, the purpose of the Marine Conservation Zone is still to conserve this wealth of wildlife. Garland Stone By promoting careful and responsible use of the MCZ, habitats and wildlife are protected from damage and disturbance. North Haven Martin’s Haven Skomer Island Midland Jack Isle Sound South Haven Skomer Head Marloes Skomer Marine Conservation Zone Key Footpath Wales Coast Path 0 1km MCZ Boundary Seal Viewing Point All the images and information in the booklet are Porpoise/Dolphin Viewing Point the products of the work NRW staff carry out in looking after the MCZ. Car Park Skokholm Skomer Marine Stars, Conservation Zone’s amazing undersea squirts wildlife Imagine a hidden world where unfamiliar creatures like squirts, stars and and slugs all exist side by side. Such a world exists in the Skomer Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ). slugs Squirts can’t be compared to anything you will see on land – most look more like miniature hand-painted jellies and flower heads than animals. You may be more familiar with the stars – relatives of the common starfish. We have all sorts: sunstars, bloodstars, brittlestars, spinystars, cushionstars and featherstars! Even our tiny voracious slugs are infinitely more colourful and attractive than any you’ll see in your garden. The wonderfully scenic coast and seabed provide an abundance of different habitats - places for animals and plants to live - and they are teeming with all kinds of life, not just the familiar seals, fish, crabs and lobsters. It’s home to more than a third of all British seaweed species, over 100 different sponges and 40 species of anemone and soft coral. Each animal or plant fits into a complicated web of marine life and, through evolution, has adapted to living in one of the many different and demanding habitats to be found here. That adaptation has provided us with a multitude of wonderful organisms of many colours, shapes and sizes, hidden just out of sight beneath the waves. Habitats shaped by storms, tides and currents Key to the huge variety of life in the MCZ is the diversity of its habitats. Water movement determines what lives where and sea conditions range from tranquil to tempestuous. Tides cause the sea to pour round the island and through the sounds in torrents. Huge storm waves pound the south and west coasts. Powerful tidal currents sweep through the sounds and past headlands and offshore rocks. Sands and muds form the seabed in deep, sheltered water and in bays. Plants and animals live at different depths influenced by the amount of light reaching the seabed. Complicated as it is, this complexity produces diverse habitats and wildlife. //If the water could be drained from Jack Sound, this would be the view from high above the sea outside //Wave Action //Strong Currents //Sheltered Bay Martin’s Haven. atella - Fuc - P vu eed us ls lg w ve Rocky shores – el at a s h a se ic s a u p n n l o w o a place of extremes t d s o u e G r l s i B p b r The Skomer MCZ has 27 kilometres of b u u p l coast. More than 95 percent is rocky a d u n shore. The coast is fringed by bays and m a b s promontories, cliffs and slopes, isolated t i l e i c p rock pinnacles, caves and tunnels. a l m i i s L The shape of the shore and the animals and plants living there vary according to their exposure to wind, waves, tides //Limpets and winkles affect the //Shore-dwelling seaweed are and currents. appearance of shores by grazing on specialists at conserving water young seaweed. during low tide. The difference in conditions between s - Balanus living at the top of the shore (wet at cle sp a ec high tide/dry at low) and the bottom rn i a e (always wet) is more extreme than a B s comparison between our Welsh mild marine climate and that of the North Pole! Plants and animals have adapted to survive this harsh environment. //Steep, //Wave-swept extremely rock slopes exposed cliffs provide a //Shells protect these animals from //Splash zone lichens extend over are dominated habitat for short, drying out or being eaten. sixty metres up cliffs. by small, tough specialised forms animals - few of seaweed which Lepadoga seaweeds can hang on tightly to h - ste fi s r g le survive. the rock surface. n p li a c d o h g s i a n s r t //Partially //Boulders e o r sheltered rock on sheltered C platforms have shores contain rich communities lush seaweed with rock pools; communities seaweeds and provide dominate the shelter for many lower shore. animals. //Vulnerable fish and soft bodied animals survive on shores by living in rock pools and sheltering under boulders. The seaweed zone – underwater forests Dense “forests” of large brown kelp plants grow only in the shallowest pets - Pat one - Urt lim ell em ici eight metres in the MCZ. They need a an na ed p y e ia fe l l l plenty of light to grow. Water clarity ra lu h i a n c a e i affects how much light is available. u d D l a Kelps can extend down to 30 metres B in very clear water, but only to about one metre in the more murky water of nearby Milford Haven. //Blue-rayed limpets are tiny, but //Flower-like anemones are actually voracious and eat large holes in predators equipped with stinging kelp stipes. tentacles ready to capture food. ac L - Dr hiel se - abru d la ras s ee sp w be w e r a c n g t a y e a ll s lt b a a d i B l e i s R //Kelps are the largest //The holdfast anchors //Kelp stipes, the “tree marine seaweed. Their the plants to rock. Its trunks”, are sometimes structure is simple. root-like structure is colonised by sponges Their fronds form a an animal refuge. Over and sea squirts. //Many red seaweeds need less light //Ballan wrasse patrol the kelp forest “canopy”, often 250 species have been than kelp. They thrive in the shade forest defending their territories. encrusted by seafirs and recorded living in kelp of the kelp canopy and form dense seamats. holdfasts. “meadows” on rock slopes below the edge of the forest. The animal zone – colourful creatures create seabed ‘turfs’ enta - Co l - P por one ryn ra a f m ac o o e ti Light-dependant seaweeds cannot c li n s s a a v s c l i survive in water much deeper than o e e r a id R w i fifteen metres in the MCZ. Any e s J rocky surfaces deeper than this are smothered by characteristic “turfs” of animals fixed to the seabed. Tidal currents bring plentiful food, in the form of plankton and tiny organic fragments. These minute particles are filtered //Ross corals are not corals at //Jewel anemones of many colour from the water by specialised seafirs, all, but are colonies of countless varieties form sheets of thousands seasquirts, sponges and bryozoans, and individuals living in microscopic of individuals. They reproduce by trapped by the stinging tentacles of chalky building blocks. These fragile cloning, with parent anemones anemones and corals. structures can grow to over a splitting into two. metre across. In strong currents animals need to be firmly attached so as not to be swept e - Axinel irts - Den away. In Jack Sound currents can reach ng la qu dr o d s od p is a o s s e over 10 miles per hour - about eight t im s a c y g e il r r times faster than the average person r i r s o E e s can swim. b s e u s l a o r o i a G //Delicate sponges, susceptible //Sea squirts are an example of a to damage, thrive in gentle water animals that filter food from the movement. water, and they thrive in strong currents. Skomer seabed sediments – - M ph one esac - Lo ius p nowhere to run, em m sh isc n ae rfi a a a e to l g m g ri everywhere to hide in n u it s w c A o h r e r At first glance sand, gravel and mud l u l i i (sediment) habitats appear deserted. B Don’t be deceived – the animals that live here often use camouflage to stay alive on the sediment surface, or survive by burrowing beneath it. //Burrowing animals have a clever //The anglerfish has perfected way of avoiding predators. Their the art of camouflage. It eats a tentacles capture food from the wide variety of prey which it lures water passing by, whilst their bodies into a suitable position above its remain safely protected. When cavernous mouth by twitching a lure danger threatens they completely on the end of its dorsal fin.