Marine Nature Reserves
Strangford Lough has been designated as Northern Ireland's first Marine Nature Reserve. The reserve includes all the waters, seabed and shores (up to high water mark mean tide) of Strangford Lough itself plus those of an area around the mouth of the Lough, extending north to Kearney Village, south to Sheepland Harbour and offshore for a distance of ¼ to ½ a nautical mile.
Extensive surveys have shown that the Lough supports an exceptional range of marine life, with some of its features being of international renown.
The decision to designate was based on extensive surveys of Northern Ireland's seashore and coastal seabed which confirmed the importance of the Lough and adjacent coastal waters for marine life. The designation provides for the conservation of the flora, fauna, landforms and other features of scientific interest and for study of these features.
Strangford Lough
What is so special about Strangford Lough?
The geology and landforms of the Lough create a remarkable range of shore and seabed conditions in a relatively small area.
Strangford Lough boasts:
• an exceptional variety of marine habitats including most of those described for the Irish Sea, resulting from the wide range of current speeds, levels of exposure and shore/seabed types to be found in the area
• over 2000 marine species including some typical of the Arctic, others of southern distribution and a few first described from the Lough
• unusually fine examples of some marine communities, particularly those associated with tidal streams and those found in undisturbed muddy areas where Horse Mussels provide a hard surface for the growth of a hundred or more other species
• an abundance of feeding for internationally important populations both of wintering waterfowl and wading bird and of breeding seabirds
• possibly the largest breeding populations of Common Seals in Ireland
• Glaciated landforms modified by the sea including some features unique in Ireland
• a largely undisturbed seabed, contrasting with conditions in much of the Irish Sea where the bed has been grossly modified by fishing
• generally good water quality
• a considerable body of knowledge on the natural history of the area
Life on the Bottom
• Life on the seabed depends on its composition, on depth, current, and exposure to waves.
• In the Narrows colourful sponges, some more than a metre across, with soft corals, hydroids and sea-anemones occur. These filter plankton from the water sweeping over them.
• Coarse gravels and sands are home to sea-cucumbers and dog cockles, largely buried for protection, and tough sea-mats, able to withstand the scouring of water-borne sand.
• Burrowing purple heart-urchins are found in the gravels off Ballyquintin Point.
• Rocky shallows support forests of swaying kelp - home to wrasse and butterfish with tortoiseshell, blue-rayed and keyhole limpets, sea-slugs, sea-urchins, starfish, lobsters and crabs among the understorey of red seaweeds.
• In sandy gravels there are sand-eels, razor-shells, various species of sea-snail, lugworms, sea-potatoes (a burrowing urchin), sea-cucumbers, burrowing brittle-stars, burrowing sea-anemones and sea-pens. King scallops, starfish,brittle-stars, burrowing sea-anemones, sea-squirts and crabs are found where the bed comprises muddy gravels.
• Where the currents are gentle and there is no turbulence from waves there may be beds of horse mussels on an otherwise muddy bed - a community described as mud with shell. Up to one hundred other species of animal can be associated with the horse mussels, many depending on them for a hard surface above the mud to which they can cling. Towards the south of the Lough brittle-stars predominate on the mussel beds. Further north they support a multitude of sponges, hydroids,
sea-anemones, sea-mats, sea-squirts, starfish, feather-stars, sea-cucumbers,
sea-urchins, sea-slugs, sea-snails, scale-worms, ube-worms, crabs, squat lobsters and small scallops.
• In muddy areas where the horse mussels are absent there are only a few species. The most obvious are Dublin Bay (Nephrops) prawns, Fries' goby (a fish which shares the prawns' burrows) and sea-mice (large scale-worms).
Life on the Shores
• The marine life on the shore varies from high to low water mark, as well as being affected by its composition, by tides, currents and waves.
• Sheltered areas tend to have muddy shores, often with a fringe of saltmarsh at high water. This is best developed in the Comber Estuary.
• Mud snails, which graze on microscopic algae and bacteria on the surface of the mudflats, are eaten by shelduck and other waterfowl. Lugworms, ragworms, catworms, tellin shells and burrowing amphipod 'shrimps' (Corophium) live within the sediment. These animals exist in enormous numbers and form an important part of the diet of the 45,000 wading birds which winter on Strangford Lough. Muddy sand may be clothed with extensive beds of eel-grass, (a marine 'pondweed'), or with green seaweeds where there is enrichment from freshwater run-off. These plants are the main food item for up to 15,000 grazing waterfowl, particularly light-bellied brent geese from Arctic Canada and wigeon from Iceland and Russia, which come to the Lough in winter.
• Areas of gravel may support dahlia anemones, burrowing sea-anemones of several species, also worm-cucumbers, the extraordinary parchment worm and unusual creatures such as acorn and sipunculid worms. In sheltered lower-shore areas, larger cobbles embedded in gravels support exceptional growths of sponges, sea-squirts and tube-dwelling worms.
• Sea-slaters and sand-hoppers live under cobbles on the upper shore where small winkles graze. Further Down cobbles and boulders are usually smothered in brown seaweeds (wrack), with a range of smaller red seaweeds including dulse and carragheen at low water. Barnacles and chitons adhere to the upper surfaces, with several species of sponge, sea-anemone and sea-squirt round the base of the stones and on the wrack. Periwinkles, whelks and top-shells, notably a white variety of the painted top-shell, saddle-oysters, green and edible sea-urchins,
cushion-stars, sea-slugs and various worms are found near low water. Redshank and Turnstones feed in this habitat.
• Large boulders and bedrock are conspicuously zoned with colourful lichens at the top, a series of wrack species mid-shore and kelp at the bottom. There may also be bands of barnacles, limpets and mussels, especially on exposed shores south of the Narrows. In the Narrows many species normally confined to below low water can be seen on the shore. These include several types of sponge, soft corals, sea-squirts, sea-anemones such as the colourful jewel anemone, Devonshire cup coral and the curious sea-lemon (a large sea-slug). To the north of the Narrows on the Outer Ards broad rock platforms with rockpools support a great range of red seaweeds.
• A special feature of the Lough is its tidal rapids. Here a flow of salt water, even at low tide, allows underwater species such as feather-stars, sea-cucumbers and colonial sea-squirts to thrive on the shore.
Life in the Waters
• The waters of the Lough teem with microscopic plants and animals, many of them the mobile larval stages of larger species common on the shores and seabed. These are known as plankton and comprise the basic food source of most marine animals.
• Sand-eels and the fry of several fish species feed on the plankton. They in turn provide food for many of the seabirds breeding around the Lough. Though numbers of larger fish seem to have declined, a wide range of fish species can be seen by divers, especially around wrecks on the seabed.
• The sheltered waters, rocks and islands attract seabirds, particularly terns, black-headed gulls, black guillemots and eider duck all of which breed and feed within and close to the Lough. Kittiwake and shag breed on the cliffs of Guns Island, with fulmar nesting at Killard
• The Lough is the main breeding area in Northern Ireland for common seals, of which there are several hundred in summer. A few grey seals also breed.
• Seabirds may be seen from many points around the Lough. Seals are readily viewed from the car park at Cloghy Rocks south of Strangford village. Common porpoises are frequently sighted from boats.
• Many of the fish species and other marine life which live in the Lough and Irish Sea may be seen at Exploris, the public aquarium managed by Ards Borough Council at Portaferry.
The Management Objectives for Strangford Lough Marine Nature Reserve are summarised here:
• Maintain the physical system in as natural a state as possible
• Maintain the natural biodiversity
• Maintain or increase the populations of any notable species present
• Conserve the landscape and man-made heritage
• Provide for a healthy, safe and clean environment
• Allow continued sustainable commercial use
• Integrate new developments and uses
• Provide for public enjoyment and appreciation
• Promote and provide for study and research
• Monitor the physical system, the wildlife and human use and counter adverse changes where practicable
• Co-ordinate the conservation and uses of the reserve within an integrated coastal zone management strategy for the wider area