Cumbria Coast is one of England's

Marine Conservation Zone A Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) is a type of marine nature reserve in United Kingdom, UK waters. They were established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) and are areas designated with the aim to prot ...

s. It was designated in 2013 and is one of a number of such zones off the coast of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

and

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...

The MCZ covers the stretch of sea from

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

down to the mouth of the Ravenglass Estuary. It includes the sea off

Sellafield Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...

(the

nuclear fuel reprocessing Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: * Nuclear engineering * Nuclear physics * Nuclear power * Nuclear reactor * Nuclear weapon * Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space * ...

and

nuclear decommissioning Nuclear decommissioning is the process leading to the irreversible complete or partial closure of a nuclear facility, usually a nuclear reactor, with the ultimate aim at termination of the operating licence. The process usually runs according to ...

site), and off St Bees Head.

Fauna

The MCZ protects underwater habitats and animals such as the honeycomb worm. St Bees Head, where there is an RSPB reserve, is an important breeding site for sea birds.

Extension

There was concern that the MCZ as originally designated did not protect enough of the foraging grounds of sea birds. In 2019 an addition was agreed.

References

{{coord, 54.5145, -3.6639, display=title Marine reserves of England Nature reserves in Cumbria Protected areas established in 2013

Fauna

Extension

See also

References