Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone is in the English Channel, between and off the West Sussex coast to the south of

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south south-west of London, west of Brighton and ...

and

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

. It covers an area of around . The MCZ contains two marine Sites of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCIs) - Kingmere Rocks, off Littlehampton, and the Worthing Lumps, off of Worthing. ''Kingmere Rocks'' are one of the best-known spawning sites for the

black seabream The black seabream (''Spondyliosoma cantharus'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies. This fish has a wide distribution in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterran ...

. Kingmere may also be the most important for sea bream in the UK. The rocky habitats and chalk outcrops provide ideal nesting grounds. Lying some three miles off the coast of Worthing, the ''Worthing Lumps'' are a series of underwater chalk cliff faces, up to three metres high. The lumps have been described as "one of the best chalk reefs in Europe" by the

Marine Conservation Society The Marine Conservation Society is a UK-based charitable organisation working with businesses, governments and communities to clean and protect oceans. Founded in 1978 as the Underwater Conservation Society, the group claims to be working towards ...

. The Kingmere MCZ site is within the jurisdiction of the Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (Sussex IFCA) for fisheries management. The site is mainly fished by vessels based on the Sussex coast in

Selsey Selsey () is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish, about south of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is in ...

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in the Adur District, Adur district, in the county of West Sussex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 20,547. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to ...

Newhaven Newhaven is a port town in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England, lying at the mouth of the River Ouse. The town developed during the Middle Ages as the nearby port of Seaford began drying up, forcing a new port to be established. A ...

and

. The main commercial fishery is potting, followed by

netting In law, set-off or netting is a legal technique applied between persons or businesses with mutual rights and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities, replacing gross positions with net positions. It permits the rights to be used to discharg ...

and

trawling Trawling is an industrial method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch di ...

. Most vessels fishing in the site are small static gear boats under 10 metres.

Fauna

Kingmere Rocks is one of the most important sites for the breeding of black sea bream. Male black sea bream search for suitable parts of the sea bed on which to spawn and then use their tails to create nests within the sediment that lies over the rock. Female sea bream then lay eggs in the nest which is watched over by the males until the eggs hatch. The juvenile sea bream then remain in the area of the nest for some time. Because of their delicate spawning bahviour, black sea bream are vulnerable to fishing practices like scallop-dredging that churn up the sea bed. The Worthing Lumps is home to the first and only location for

Baillon's wrasse Baillon's wrasse (''Symphodus bailloni'') is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean from the British Isles and Belgium to Mauritania and the western Mediterranean Sea along the coast of Spain and around the Balearic Islands ...

in Sussex, a fish normally found in the British Isles off the coast of

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

and

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

in Ireland.{{cite web, url=https://www.mcsuk.org/mpa/show-UKMCZ0009, title=Kingmere MCZ, publisher=

, accessdate=15 October 2018 The Worthing Lumps are home to other rare fish such as

blennies Blennies (from the Greek and , mucus, slime) are a diverse clade of ray-finned fish in the suborder Blennioidei of the percomorph order Blenniiformes. They inhabit marine, brackish, and occasionally freshwater habitats, and generally share simi ...

and the

lesser spotted dogfish The small-spotted catshark (''Scyliorhinus canicula''), also known as the sandy dogfish, lesser-spotted dogfish, rough-hound or morgay (in Scotland and Cornwall), is a Scyliorhinidae, catshark of the family (biology), family Scyliorhinidae. It is ...

References

Marine conservation English Channel West Sussex Reefs of England Coastal geography Marine reserves of the United Kingdom

Fauna

See also

References