It's our World: Help to shape how we use the Irish Sea

Oct 21 2009 by Jade Wright, Birkenhead News

THE sun has just come up and I’m five miles off the Wirral coast. I’m here to look at one of the many ways we use the Irish Sea, and to look at how that could all change in the years to come.

It’s part of the Irish Sea Conservation Zone project, which is looking at how the area should be used in the future.

Over the next few years, parts of the Irish Sea will be given environmental protection as the UK government is committed to establishing a network of Marine Protected Areas by 2012.

The purpose of the ISCZ is to help the people who use the Irish Sea make recommendations to the government.

It is the first time this ‘bottom up’ process has been practised in the UK to help identify marine areas of protection.

“We aren’t making any decisions or recommendations,” says project manager Rowan Byrne. “We are looking for the people who use the sea to tell us what they want.”

As we sail around the wind turbines, I’m amazed by the variety of wildlife that flourishes around them.

The wind farm supplies enough electricity to power 80,000 homes, but it doesn’t feel like a power station at all. Seals bob merrily around our boat, and a basking shark swims by.

The Irish Sea has lots of different habitats including honeycomb reefs made up of living worms and muddy beds home to sea urchins, Dublin Bay prawns and brittlestars.

Other landscapes include rocky reefs, sea grass beds, and gardens made up of plant-like animals called sea pens.

The Irish Sea is also home to important species such as sharks, whales, dolphins and porpoise, as well as the rare and endangered pink sea fan.