Marine biodiversity: Exploration of the South West Canyons
In June this year, a team of European scientists, led by the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) explored the deep underwater canyons at the edge of the continental shelf, 320 km off Lands End directly between the UK, Ireland and France. Starting at around 200m water depth, these canyons plummet to the abyssal plain over 4,000m below, but almost nothing is known about what lives there, on the seabed.
The team, which received significant funding from Defra, found that the canyons were made up of fine muddy sands at their tops, on the edge of the continental shelf, and were home to delicate seapens, anemones, sea cucumbers, and patches of featherstars. Further down the canyons the seabed was made up of layers of silty clay, with steep outcrops of white chalk at depths of around 900m. These rocky outcrops did support a few cold water corals and other species, but not as much as could have been expected.
One small area of coral reef was found, with bright orange cold water corals, anemones, starfish and featherstars, and some fish.
Page last modified:17 July 2007