East Midlands Region

On the North-Eastern coast of Lincolnshire, is Donna Nook nature reserve. Here wildlife has learnt to coincide with human activity, combining an RAF practice bombing area with the UKs largest breeding grey seal colony. The British population of grey seals is of great international conservation importance and we are fortunate to have a thriving colony on the Lincolnshire coast. For much of the year the seals are at sea or hauled out on distant sandbanks, but during the winter they come to breed near the dunes on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve at Donna Nook.  The RAF Bombing Range at Donna Nook provides the seals with a relatively disturbance-free site for hauling out. The seals are not the least bit concerned by the planes. Grey seals spend two thirds of their time out at sea, hunting and feeding. Adults eat about 11lb of fish a day each. Off the Lincolnshire coast seals feed on  Dover sole and sand eels, which can be found laying on and buried within the sandy seabed within this region. Seals are however opportunistic feeders and will eat whatever is the most plentiful.

Moving South along the North Sea, the seabed becomes shallower and changes from rocky reef substrata to a fine, siltier sandy/gravelly consistency. Changes in sediment type greatly affect the species found within a region, here we see fewer creatures living attached to the seabed and more buried within it. A good example of this is seen in the Wash, an area of extensive mud and sand flats, containing buried within them dense beds of bivalves (molluscs with two part shells), such as cockles and mussels. Beaches along this region can be found littered with oyster, cockle and razor shells, examples of life adapted to living buried within sand. Within the stonier areas of seabed large numbers of starfish, lobsters and crabs can be found. Some lobsters can even be found burrowing into the sandbank slopes of the central Wash.

A key feature of this region from the Lincolnshire to the Essex boundary are the presence of sole nurseries.

Sole Nurseries:

Sole is a flatfish found on sandy and muddy seabeds and estuarine habitats. It canbe found in depths of 1-70metres, during the winter they move offshore and can be found in waters as deep as 120metres. It, like other flatfish can vary in colour to suit its surroundings. It varies between grey, reddish brown and grey brown with dark blotches across its body. Female sole lay up to 500,000 eggs every year which drift in the plankton until the young reach a length of 12-15mms. Few eggs survive each year, those that make it then spend their early life sheltered in estuaries and inlets. Gently shelving mudflats, sandy beaches, saltmarshes, creeks and sandy, gravelly seabed all provide  a nursery ground for baby sole.

Sole, once larger moves out to sea and resident on sandflats, where they can burrow into the sand by day to escape predation and hunt at dusk and dawn. Sole typically feed on small crabs, shrimp and worms.Sole are included within the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for commercial marine fish. They are however vulnerable to over exploitation and populations are thought to be declining.