Habitat
The Kent & Essex district includes a wide variety of marine environments, with a wide range of substrate types (rock, sand, gravel, mud or combinations of these), exposed and sheltered areas and shallow intertidal areas and deep subtial areas. It is this diverse range of conditions that has helped create a wide range of habitats and it is these habitats that in turn that support and provide for the wide range of species in our waters.
As well as physical conditions creating specific habitats in certain conditions specific marine species can dominate a particular habitat. These species in turn can influence the distribution of other animals and plants found in the habitat and add a further biological aspect to how we define of the habitats.
Scientists have a classification system for marine habitats, and have developed some specialist terms to describe the different depth zones in which particular habitats are found. Depth has a very strong influence on marine life – there will be quite different communities living at the different heights on the beach, and these will all be distinct from those in shallow, mid-depth and very deep water.
Species
The wide range of different marine habitats found within Kent & Essex IFCA district attract a wide diversity of marine life of different shapes, sizes and colours with some species also being recognised as important in a national and sometimes international context.
Some of these species (generally finfish and shellfish) are also exploited by man either at a recreational or commercial level, with fishing fleets developing specific gear to catch key commercial species. Each species is unique in its life cycle, behaviour and habitat preference and the fishermen utilise these characteristics to catch their target species e.g. baiting pots to attract bottom dwelling mobile shellfish like lobsters, crabs and whelks, or towing a net to catch the larger mobile fish which inhabit the mid water region.
Over the coming weeks and months, we will be adding information on some of the species found in the Kent & Essex IFCA District. From commercial fish and shellfish, to migratory birds, to reef-building worms - there is plenty of interest both above and below the sea surface.