Introduction

Perhaps the first thing to do is to explain what we mean by "the Irish Sea". Really there's only one sea on the planet of course, because the oceans are all one body of water, but for the purpose of this section we'll take the Irish Sea as being the area between Rathlin Island, Moyle District, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and the Mull of Kintyre, Argyll, Scotland in the north and Hook Head, Co. Wexford, Republic of Ireland and St. Anne's Head, Pembrokeshire, Wales in the south. That includes the North Channel and St. George's Channel. However, if you detect some bias towards the seas around the northwest of England we can only apologise! We are trying hard to put this right with time, hopefully with your help.

The most accessible and possibly the greatest wildlife resource of the Irish Sea lies in its estuaries: particularly the Dee Estuary, the Mersey Estuary, the Ribble Estuary, Morecambe Bay, the Solway Firth, Loch Ryan, the Firth of Clyde, Belfast Lough, Strangford Lough, Carlingford Lough, Dundalk Bay, Dublin Bay and the Wexford Slobs. More information on some of these can also be found through the PISCES website and the Resources section of this site. However, lots of wildlife also depends on the cliffs, saltmarshes and sand dunes of the adjoining shores, the seabed and the open sea itself. Because the wildlife offshore is less accessible to most people it's generally the least well known and understood so we'll try to concentrate on that.