Natural England - Biodiversity in England's seas
Biodiversity in England's seas
Basking shark (c) Paul Naylor
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and England’s seas are home to around 8000 different marine species including basking sharks, seagrass meadows and rare sunset cup corals.
Natural England has got together with The Deep Exhibition at the Natural History Museum to explore the wonders of our seas.
If you want to find out more about the wildlife that lives in our seas why not try our exciting children's undersea activities .
Or you can download one of our undersea landscape maps.
Sunset cup coral (pictured left) and seagrass meadow (pictured right) (c) Paul Kay
Protect and conserve our seas
It is vitally important that we protect and conserve our marine biodiversity and you can help. Natural England along with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee are leading on a project to create Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in English inshore waters and offshore waters next to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These MCZs will help protect our nationally important marine wildlife and habitats.
If you use the sea or have an interest in it you can share your knowledge with us and have a say in where these Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) will be. Contact your regional MCZ project to find out more:
Balanced Seas (south-east)
Finding Sanctuary (south-west)
Irish Sea Conservation Zones (Irish Sea)
Net Gain (North Sea)
